Teen Titans Robin Reborn
by secondchild02
Summary: Slade is back and with an ancient scroll and an endless evil will attempt to destroy the Titans using their own leader as a weapon against them. Robin Dies, Raven Kills and Starfire just mopes around. R&R, please! COMPLETE!
1. Who am I

Teen titans

Robin reborn

episode I: who am I?

by secondchild02

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, if I did I sure wouldn't still be living in my parents' house would I? The only thing I do own in this story is Havelock and he isn't worth much. I don't have any money so please don't sue me. If I annoy DC Comics by writing this I'll go and clean their cars for a month, I promise, I'll even polish them, how's that for a deal?

Gotham City Museum was gradually closing down for the night. Lights went off one by one and security guards shuffled and wheezed their way through the halls, lost in memories of their days on whatever police force they had worked for before retirement. Eventually the only illumination was a thin ray of moonlight that pierced the overarching dome of the main exhibit hall and struck the reflecting pool at its centre. Silver light danced around the hall like a shoal of fish, blown this way and that by the mysterious currents of the ocean. It shimmered across the huge banner that draped across the hall proclaiming "Gotham City Museum," on the top line in huge scarlet letters with "Ancient Scrolls Exhibit" beneath it in blue. The subtle, elegant light finally played delicately across the low, squat display cases, their dried up, ancient contents highlighted in shades of silver.

Only to the keenest of ears would a light padding noise be infrequently heard and even then just dismissed as the dome contracting in the cool of night. If you were to pull back and observe the dome, contracting from a height a figure would be seen at its very edge, playfully leaping from shadow to shadow projected by the various statues that always seemed to colonize museum roofs. Occasionally a detail would be revealed a flash of black dress, striped stockings, and purple hair. Finally, after almost an aeon of waiting the bright full moon was hidden by the clouds. A sigh of relief was heard and the figure made its way to the top of the dome. A pair of bright eyes narrowed and a long thin finger traced a wide circle around the central pane of the dome. Small brilliant purple sparks danced across the glass where her finger had been and when the circle was completed it vanished with a dull purple flash and muffled thunderclap. She slipped through the hole and dropped gracefully to the floor of the museum landing cat-like. A flicker of moonlight made it through the clouds for the briefest glimmer of a second.

Jinx.

She stood in the centre of the chamber; low display cases filled the wide circular room for about a hundred metres on every side. Jinx grinned in the dark, so far, so easy. She held her clenched fist in front of her face and released a hex, purple light flashed between her fingers, she grimaced, it looked painful. Upon opening her hand a small cloud of purple dust floated a few centimetres above her palm; turning in a circle she blew the dust around the entire room. Like an expanding galaxy the cloud filled the room slowly, each piece drifting ponderously like a drunken bumblebee until they swept through the whole chamber. In their wake was a spider web of purple lines, security lasers, and their dull light filled the cavernous room. A playful smile swept across Jinx's face, she tensed, then leapt. In a rapid succession of cartwheels and summersaults she flipped and span across the room eventually landing in front of a display case, flat on her feet and looking quite like she had just strolled there from the centre of the room. She looked at the case and thought, 'It's not even one of the big ones, it's, like, totally in the corner of the room and there's, nothing in it but some crusty old piece of what looks like a math book'. She shrugged. The display case sat there defiantly impregnable. Now she was stuck.

She knew that the case would be weight sensitive so she couldn't burn a hole in it with a hex or just smash it, which would bring alarms, guards, and complications. 'Nothing for it then' she reached into a compartment on her belt and brought out a device about the size of a matchbox with a familiar green G on it, obviously Gizmo's work. If it was one thing she had learned in her time with HIVE it was that no matter how far you got, how many guards you defeated, heroes destroyed, and buildings broken into you would always, always, have to use one of Gizmo's devices to finally open the vault, safe, lockbox or whatever. She placed the small device on to the centre of the display cases and pressed the G.

A few lights blinked on the thing, Jinx raised an eyebrow, the lights got faster, and Jinx cocked her head to one side, 'What is the freakin' thing?' Suddenly there was bright flash and the whole case vanished, she jerked forward suddenly and caught the old book before it hit the ground. There was a flash.

Fire, everywhere, a city in ruins, people running, screaming, shrieking in terror. Jinx stood in the middle of a huge square with people streaming past her, running for their lives. Around her huge stone buildings burned and above the crackling of the flames and the screams, a sound. It was laughter. Deep, dark and terrible with echoes of steel and bronze drenched in blood and it filled the square, then the world and then her mind. She dropped to her knees screaming as pair of eyes filled her consciousness, a pair of eyes on fire.

Another flash, she was back standing in the museum just as the weight of the book finally settled into her hands. She stood for about a minute puzzled, staring at the book. 'What the hell was that' she thought. A beam of bright light hit her in the face and broke her concentration.

"Hey!," a hoarse voice called "What you doin' over there?". In a fluid motion Jinx span, tossed the book into her one-strap pack and launched a purple hex across the room. After being freaked out, it was time for some fun.

At the same time in Titan's tower in Jump City, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy were sitting around the main table in the kitchen area. The remains of Beast Boy's tofu waffles lay scattered around the table along with some cold bacon and a half mug of herbal tea that obviously belonged to the other two. On the big screen in the background some video game was flashing "continue Y/N" over and over. The mood seemed sombre. "Slade" Beast Boy broke the silence with the one word. "There hasn't been anything in months," said Raven flatly staring fixedly at her discarded mug "I wonder what gives?" Cyborg shifted, leaning forward with his elbows on the table.

"Maybe he's dead y'all," he said "we haven't heard a peep out of him since-"

"Terra" Beast Boy said softly. Raven put a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll bring her back Beast Boy, I promise". Beast Boys' head sank a little further down, he seemed to get smaller than he already was.

Terra had been a young girl the Titans had taken in who had an incredible telekinetic ability to move rocks and earth around. At first she rejected their offer to join the Titans, fearing her powers couldn't be controlled and that she would destroy herself and those around her. She ran away that night. About a month or so later she returned with a new level of control over her powers, however, this control had come at a price and she had become Slade's apprentice. She gained their confidence and infiltrated the Titans and when the time came, at Slade's command, turned on them, apparently destroying them one by one. In the end Slade used her power to almost destroy the Titans along with the city, Terra then turned on Slade as a volcano threatened to erupt in the middle of the city. In a burst of power, more than she had ever released at once before she prevented the eruption and, seemingly, destroyed Slade. But Terra couldn't save herself, the effort of saving the city destroyed her, she turned to stone. It was tough for the Titans to take, she had been their friend and ultimately gave her life to save them all. Beast Boy took it harder than anyone, he had been particularly fond of Terra.

"And if there isn't?" He looked up at Raven who saw herself reflected in his wide, glassy, dark eyes. She felt his sadness, it boiled off him like a cloud. Cyborg let out a chuckle and slapped him hard on the back; Beast Boy bounced forward and hit the table "At least you'll always have old Cy', Green Boy"

"What you do that for, you're goin' down Tin Man" Beast Boy roared, the two of them locked gazes, if a fly had buzzed between them it would have burst into flames. "Best of five" growled Cyborg, who then suddenly grinned childishly and leapt towards the Game-Box console. Beast Boy sprang after him, "Oh it's on now!" Raven stood up and went about the business of making another cup of herbal tea, "Boys!" she mumbled, if she weren't psychic she would swear they had no feelings at all. She was lost in thought when she felt something wrong; she turned to check if Beast Boy was moping over Terra again. No, he was focused intently on the screen; his pixilated giant mecha was delivering a series of roundhouse kicks to Cyborg's. Closing her eyes she let her consciousness spread out, filling the whole tower, searching for the source of the emotional unbalance. She lightly brushed one other mind, the shock of which made her gasp, it was Starfire, and she was almost incoherent.

"RobinRobinRobinRobinRobinRobinwhywhyRobinRobinRobindoesn'theRobinRobinRobinwhyRobindoesn'twhy?"

Raven looked down at the cup in her hands; the other Titans had spotted a, well, a thing between Robin and Starfire but hadn't said anything about it. It was stupid, they could never have relationship, not with what they did, and it would put the team at risk. Raven knew this; she also knew that was Robins' thoughts on the subject too. But, she also sensed under the thoughts that were Robin, a voice, small, but powerful, and it spoke only of Starfire. It needed her, it wanted her, it couldn't exist without her, and Starfire was the air it breathed and the water of its life. It loved her. Raven was no expert on love or most emotions for that matter, but she knew that Robin must have to go everyday ignoring it, despite Starfire being in his life and everything he did everyday. Raven thought that was almost the worst thing possible. 'I better go and see to Starfire', she thought, as the only other girl she felt it to be her duty, fishing out two tubs of cookie dough ice cream from the freezer she vanished upstairs.

If the feeling of Starfire's normally flower and sunbeam filled mind being almost torn apart by depression hadn't jarred her so much, Raven would have been wondering 'So, where is Robin then?'

A figure sat on the edge of Jump Tower, the highest building in the city. It was sitting leaning up on its elbows in an almost lying down position. It was Robin, his red and green uniform was soaked through with the rain that had just passed and his normally spiky hair was wet and fell down covering his eyes. He pushed it up out of the way revealing his black eye mask. He sighed, thinking back to two hours ago. He had been on the roof of Titan's Tower testing out some new type of his electric discs when Starfire had appeared, flying up from the side of the tower chasing a butterfly or something. She landed and came to talk to him. The conversation hadn't gone well. She talked about how with Slade gone they could relax for a while, unwind, take some time to be themselves. He had grumbled something about how they shouldn't let up on their training as they had no proof Slade was really gone. She said that there was more to life than training, she put her hand on his shoulder, that he had been working too hard these past few months. Her hand slipped down his arm to his hand, she had said that they finally had the time to explore whatever they obviously felt for each other. He had said maybe, he could take some time off, he moved closer to her; she smiled her green eyes glittering like jewels. They kissed; it felt like days went past. Starfire moved her hands on to his face. His face wasn't too cold but Star's hands were nice and warm and he found himself losing focus, becoming absorbed in the moment. It was almost perfect, the air was mild and still with the huge silvery moon reflected on the calm water of the bay. Then it happened, Star's hands slowly crept under the sides of his mask moving it slowly up and off his face. He froze, it was almost off, he jerked away wrenching it back down on to his face. Then there was a conversation, Star had cried, and then he had left on patrol.

'It's just a mask,' he thought ' what's the deal with it' he reached up and touched it with a gloved hand. 'Why would she try and take it off ? and when she did why did I freak?' he reached up behind his head and untied the knot that held it on. 'See, I can take it off anytime I want!' he held it in front of him. When was the last time he had done this? Yesterday? Last week? Last Month? Did he even take it off to sleep anymore? He didn't remember. He had spent so much of the past few months hunting Slade and dealing with Terra, Johnny Rancid and aliens kidnapping Beast Boy that he hadn't done much but work. That's what this was, a job. Or was it? Did he have anything else except this? Oh sure there was Batman and Gotham City but he had found himself spending more and more time in Jump City with the Titans. Here he could be the leader and not just a partner, although he had tended to call himself a sidekick these days. He was getting used to calling the shots. Nightwing had left to go solo who had been Robin before he had, and there had been another Robin after Nightwing, he was Robin number three. There it was, the thought that had been bothering him for a while, the thought that had made him freak out and cause Star to stop taking off his mask. He was replaceable. Robin was just a character that could be filled by anyone who fit the bill, it wasn't his But _he_ was Robin, in his soul he knew it was his, he owned it, it was who he was and the reason he was here. Without Robin, who was he?

Tim Drake.

He froze, much like he had done on the roof of Titans Tower, he hadn't used the name in so long he had nearly forgotten it. Tim Drake, his name, not Robin, that was what he did, but the name his parents had given him. Parents, he had had parents once, a family, friends who weren't superheroes, and dealt with everyday problems like what brand of soda to buy or did he want the sneakers in red or blue. These days it was all beating the bad guy, saving the city and rescuing the girl in distress. They were called the _Teen_ Titans, but were they normal teenagers? A cybernetic man, an animal changeling, an alien, a half demon and him, some kid in a cape and mask. Did he not want to be Tim Drake anymore, was being a person too hard for him to deal with so he hid in a world of capes and costumes, heroes and villains and assuming an inherited identity that was no more real than a reflection on a soap bubble. Or was it his own that had become the reflection? Could Tim Drake disappear as easily as the popped bubble and when he was through with being Robin, who would he be? The thought chilled him to the core.

Of course he liked Starfire, she was everything to him. The way she moved, the sound of her voice, the silly little ways she didn't fully understand life on Earth, that dreamlike look in her eye when she talked about her home, Tamerran, and how everything was held in an almost childlike fascination and awe by her. He grinned, closing his eyes and remembered the kiss, by his side the mask hung from his hand and fluttered in the breeze. He had imagined taking her on a date, going for a walk in the hills outside Jump City, and spending rainy afternoons watching old movies with her, laughing, talking, and kissing her some more. But he was never Tim Drake in this dream, he was only Robin. Tim Drake wasn't good enough for Starfire and if he didn't want to be him then how could Star' ever love Tim Drake and not Robin. He opened his eyes and looked down at the empty mask in his hands and spoke softly to the world around him, "Who Am I?"

It was hard to tell what the building had been in its' prime. Maybe it had been a factory, maybe it had been a warehouse for heavy machinery, who knew now? It was located somewhere in one of the less friendly districts of Jump City and for the most part it looked abandoned, but recently it had been showing signs of occupation. Jinx slipped through the wicket gate in one the large doors that opened onto the street. She stopped as soon as she entered and strained to see in the gloom. All around her she could see the shapes of people looking at her, they all had one arm raised and were pointing a laser weapon at her, the inside of short barrels glowed an infernal red as the focusing crystals charged A second or so went by and the figures lowered their weapons and lost interest in her. She picked her way through the dormant sentries and climbed the rickety stairs to the offices that were on the second floor at the rear of the old building. Only one had a light on, she went inside. The room was dark save for a patch of light that revealed only the highlights of a figure sitting in a chair. It gleamed off its' armour and full face mask that the lighting only revealed half of which that was a dull brassy colour. "Do you have it?" the voice was deep and calm, some would have called it a pleasant, soothing voice but anyone with knowledge of the mind behind it would have said otherwise. "Yeah," answered Jinx, "I got your crummy scroll thing" she fished it out of her bag and waved it around, dust blew off it. "Good," said the man in the Chair "good"

"What's it for?" asked Jinx, looking critically at the cover of the book, it was faded leather with a cracked red cross painted on it. "What's it do?". The man in the chair stood up suddenly, Jinx flinched,

"It is older than most civilisations," he said striding over to Jinx "it was written before the pyramids were built and if I am right will enable me to bring forth a power unknown in this age," the book was snatched out of her hand "that is what it is," said Slade "and that is what it does"

Raven knocked on the door to Starfire's room, there was a big pink Hello Kitty painted on it with "Starfire's' Lovely Suite" written under it. She looked sternly at the cat, it annoyingly didn't melt under the force of her gaze and remained defiantly cheerful, cute, and above all pink in front of Raven. She knocked again, "Starfire, are you in there?" Raven could sense she was in her room so the question was redundant, but the ice cream was really cold and Raven could think of only one way to get rid of it, it did involve two spoons but not two people. As cool and in control as Raven loved people to think she was, no one could resist an ice cream pig out once they had decided one was going to happen. 'Damn Starfire,' she thought 'stupid depression that needs cured by ice cream'. Raven tried again, this was going to be the last time "Starfire, I know you're in there," she said a little firmer this time "and I know why, it's me after all"

The door opened slowly, a pair of green watery eyes regarded the blue cloaked girl in the hall, they were all red and puffy from crying. Raven almost rocked off her feet with the emotional hurricane of despair and loneliness that washed over her. "Yes," came Starfire's clear pleasant voice "how can I help you Raven?" it sounded ready to crack at any time. "I sensed you were feeling, a bit, well, upset" Raven looked uncomfortable, although she liked Starfire the Tamerranian girl, Raven thought, was a bit of a fruit-loop, especially when it came to feelings and particularly those about Robin. It was like she felt everything for the first time every day. "I have ice cream" Raven smiled feebly and proffered the two tubs of cookie dough ice cream. 'Man, this is awkward' she thought. Starfire sniffed and opened the door further, she was a mess. Her purple top and mini skirt were crumpled and covered in crumbs of what looked like red wax although Raven knew it was scented soap, Starfire tended to think it was food because it smelled like it. "Raven?" she said meekly "you wish to offer support to me in my time of need with a traditional consumption of frozen dairy product in a sororial bonding ritual, correct?" her big round eyes reflected Raven standing in the middle of the corridor. "Uh," she said uncertainly "ye-yeah?". Starfire's expression froze for a second then split into a wide smile, fresh tears running down her cheeks. She pulled Raven into her room and threw her long arms around Raven's neck, she was about a head shorter than Starfire so Raven's face was pressed against Starfire's shoulder, she couldn't breathe. "Oh thank you Raven, thank you" Starfire said, her voice dripping joy "I had considered talking to you but was uncertain how you would react"

"Starfire!" Raven's voice was muffled, Starfire released her grip and stood a step back from Raven, still beaming.

"Yes, Raven?" Starfire smiled again but it was a forced effort, Raven could see fresh tears starting to form in the girl's eyes. Raven handed her an tub of ice cream and a spoon "Thought you might need this". Starfire grabbed the tub and spoon and marched back to her bed, vanishing under the covers. Raven took a second to look around the room, she didn't come in here very often. It was pink, unnervingly pink, and edged with rainbows and various flowers that seemed to be in every available colour in nature. There was a chair in the corner with the largest teddy bear Raven had ever seen on it, it was red and had a black mask round its eyes. Raven looked at it suspiciously as she sat down on the bed. The lump in the covers that was Starfire shifted and she poked her head out. "What happened, Starfire?" asked Raven flatly as she popped the lid off her ice cream. "where's Robin?" she immediately regretted asking as Starfire burst into tears. "I don't know who Robin is!"

"Of course you know who he is," said Raven putting a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth "he's Robin, you know, the boy wonder, our leader"

"I mean his name," sniffed Starfire "his real name. If he has feelings for me as I believe he does then why would he not tell me his real name, or show me his face"

"You asked him his name? that's easy," said Raven "it's....it's...i-"

"You see," interrupted Starfire "you do not know, not one of us knows. I know your name is Raven Roth, that Cyborg is called Victor, that Beast Boy is called Garfield, and you all know that my given name is K'oriandor yet not one of us knows what Robin's real name is" Raven took another spoonful of ice cream

"I guess your right, we don't know his name, but is that important?"

"Of course it is," Starfire looked shocked "he hides himself from us constantly yet he calls himself our leader, he worked alone to track and catch Slade for months and he is the only one of us who wears a mask, why would he hide his face from us?" Starfire hugged her big pink pillow and added weakly "and from me too"

"Starfire, Robin, or whatever his name is, is from a different era of superhero at least the persona of Robin is" Raven put her ice cream down "they had to hide who they were, and he's the partner of Batman, we're all just members of the Teen Titans, and he's not the only Robin there's ever been" Starfire looked up, puzzled at Raven

"Robin is not the only Robin?" she asked, her small eyebrows frowning with bafflement "are you the only Raven?"

"Trust me, there will only be one of me"

"I do not understand," Starfire hugged the pillow tighter "on Tamerran you are who you are from the moment you are born, Starfire is just what I call myself in the Teen Titans, I am still me and only I can be me. How can someone else be Robin before he is Robin, Robin is who he is, how can he be someone else?"

"That's just how it works for Robin," Raven sighed "I wish I could put on a mask and be someone else, but I can't, no one can, it just helps to bring out a piece of themselves they hide. But Robin can, Robin isn't who he is, Robin lets him be himself"

"So Robin is Robin despite not being the only Robin and not in fact being Robin but someone else entirely who can only be them selves by being Robin" Starfire said with a faint smile creeping across her face "so who ever Robin is does like me". Raven stared at the wall, she had studied psychology and knew better than all of the Titans the inner workings of the human mind, but now she was puzzled. Starfire had either been very smart or used what Raven had termed "Airhead Logic" to make a difficult problem make sense. All things considered, this was the last time Raven decided she'd try some girl talk.

Cyborg finished his victory dance around the couch, "Who is the man?," he yelled "Ah say-ed, who is the my-an?" he dropped his face level with Beast Boy's who was scowling, obviously not amused. "I just kicked your virtual butt, how does it feel, Salad Head? and who's the man?"

"You are" said Beast Boy through gritted teeth.

"You got that right!, now you remember the bet" Cyborg grinned wide

"For the rest of the day"

"Yep"

"Fine then" Beast boy transformed into a green dog, a Labrador.

"Now then," chuckled Cyborg "Bring me my slippers boy". Beast boy transformed back to his human form,

"You have got to be kidding, I am not getting you-" Cyborg hit him across the head with a rolled up newspaper.

"Do it flea breath!"

Slade stood on the staircase outside the offices in the building he had temporarily set up his base in and looked down as his droid troopers constructed the means to enact his latest plan to destroy the Titans. It would work this time, the information Terra had provided during her brief apprenticeship would prove most helpful. He looked down at the book in his hand, it was ancient, there were probably about three people on the planet who might be able to translate it, but they hadn't had the help he had had. "Is everything proceeding according to plan, Havelock?" he asked a young man writing a series of runes and symbols on the floor. Havelock was a skinny young man with lank dark hair that hung down over his ears that looked like it needed a good wash and an unhealthy complexion that suggested that fresh air was not a major part of his diet. Havelock stood up and looked at Slade, "Yes," he said "I believe it is"

"You _believe_ it is?" Slade's calm voice had a sharp edge now.

"I mean it's all going exactly as we planned"

"Good, If this doesn't work you wont have to worry about the consequences"

"I know, Mr Slade" Havelock knew better than Slade what the consequences were. From what he had been able to learn about the book Slade had Jinx steal for him it had been discovered shortly after the second world war in Berlin. The Nazi's had been collecting old books and relics for Hitler who had an obsession with the occult. Every ancient book, scroll, or manuscript that looked the part or couldn't be translated immediately was thought to be an artefact of great power. Mostly they had just collected occult junk and knick-knacks with very little of any real significance, until they had stumbled upon the book whilst they were occupying Poland. The Red Cross Book it was called, the sacred text of an ancient order of Judaism and said to contain within it the instructions for channelling power beyond measure into a vessel and how to control it. Of course Slade wasn't stupid enough to try it out on himself, he needed a test subject. It couldn't be himself, Havelock knew this as only he could read the book, and he wouldn't bet on him using Jinx either, the girl was still useful. Who would it be?

Red lights and warning sirens filled Titans Tower. Beast Boy almost swallowed one of Cyborg's slippers, Raven dropped her ice cream and Starfire screamed and hid beneath the covers of her bed. Robin's voice came booming over the intercom system, "Meet me at the Capitol Building, it's _Slade_!"

The T-car skidded to halt outside the Jump City Capitol building. From what Robin had been able to brief them with on the way they had figured out that Slade had rigged the building to blow. This didn't make sense to the Titans, Slade had never done something like this before He went after things he could steal in order to enact some new terrible plan of his to conquer the city or destroy the Titans. This wasn't his style, it was too crass and amateur for him, besides, he was supposed to be dead! In the Titan's imagination they all saw a near defeated Slade crawling out of the caverns beneath jump city, injured, almost burnt to death and full of rage that yearned to strike back at the Titans for what they had done to him.

As they stepped out of the car Raven shielded her eyes from the explosion of flash bulbs that meant the press were here. She had been right when she had said to Starfire that Robin came from a different time of heroes, back then they never had to worry about this kind of attention. "Oh my God, there he is!" an excited voice shrieked, they all turned to see a crowd of young girls holding up a huge banner saying "Beast Boy Rocks!" they all wore black t-shirts with Beast Boys' grinning face on it bearing the legend "Mean, Green Lovin' Machine!" Beast Boy was scratching the back of his head blushing "Can't help if Chicks want a bit more green in their diet, can I?" Cyborg slapped him on the back of the head "What did I say about the T-shirts?"

"Yeah," said Beast Boy "a bit too subtle, should have gone with something a bit punchier". They cast their eyes over the rest of the crowd that had gathered behind the police barricades. Young men of various shapes and sizes were wearing tin foil and red lenses or T-shirts with Cyborg on them in an athletic pose. Pale faced Goths in dark blue cloaks and hoods chanted "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" over and over again in a depressed monotone. Bright eyed young girls stood freezing in the late November air dressed in the same two piece, midriff revealing purple outfit Starfire wore screaming incoherently. A young man forced his way to the front of the crowd, he wore a white t-shirt with the words "Jump City University" on it, seven others followed him and stood in a line. They pulled off their identical shirts to reveal a big purple glittery letter on each of their chests, it spelled "STARFIRE" a chorus of whoops of yells followed from them. Then they chest slammed, Starfire waved back, obviously embarrassed. "Come on y'all" said Cyborg as a group of youths in badly made Robin suits yelled,

"Teen Titans, Go!" then high fived.

The Chief of Police, a harassed looking man called Wilson, regarded them like something he'd stepped on as they approached. "Well, look who decided to show up!" he took a swig of his coffee "Bird-Boy's inside already" It was no secret that he disliked the Teen Titans, despite the sterling service they provided for the city, but they made him look bad. He'd had his budget cut three times in three years, most of the money went to repair the extensive damage to the city their frequent run ins with the side show freak criminals, that seemed to plague the city these days, caused. He felt they had reduced him and his men to overblown Mall-Cops.

"Robin is already here?" Starfire looked up at the column fronted building with its steps bathed in alternating blue and red light. Bits of Sladetrooper robot littered them and occasionally there was a red and yellow fragment of Robin's Baterrangs. "Yeah, we tried to stop him but he ran straight on in" Wilson drained his Styrofoam cup and tossed it over his shoulder. "Nothin' for it then" said Beast Boy, Cyborg nodded.

"Teen Titans..." he shouted,

"GO!" they all shouted as one and charged forward as the crowd cheered.

He was hurt, he knew this, no ones ankle should feel like that. He was relying only on the mental training Batman had given him to work through it, but mostly it was the rage that kept him going. Slade was back, somehow, he had no idea how and he was up to something. It had to be bigger than this attack on the Capitol building, it didn't fit with Slade's style. What was he up to? Robin limped into the main debating chamber of the building, this was where the council met, now it was empty. Paper littered the floor and chairs were overturned there was nobody here, but in the Speakers chair was a familiar figure. "Robin," Slade leaned forward in to the light "So kind of you to join us" Jinx dropped from her perch in the public galleries. "Are your friends going to join us today? or did they leave the little Boy Wonder all alone?" she smirked.

"They'll be here, don't worry about it" he looked back at Slade "What are you up to Slade? blowing up public buildings isn't your style. Or have you lost your nerve since Terra almost killed you?"

"My dear Terra," said Slade calmly, sounding lost in thought "you were twice the apprentice she was Robin. Terra did the things I asked her to do because she was afraid of losing the control I gave her" he jumped down out of the chair and landed on the floor in front of Robin, punching him in he side and knocking Robin across the room "You did the things I asked you to do because you were afraid for your friends lives, but you wound up _enjoying_ it"

"I never enjoyed being a criminal," roared Robin getting back onto his feet "and I certainly never enjoyed betraying my friends" Robin threw a smoke bomb at Slade and dodged as a high kick came swinging at where his head should have been. He rolled and brought his palm flat against Slade's chin sending the man onto his back, he flipped and brought his foot down hard onto Slade's chest. But Slade rolled and caught his foot as it came down, swung him round and crashed Robin through a desk showering splinters and dust everywhere. Robin lay shaking his head in the wreckage as Slade stalked round him, "You _didn't_ enjoy pitting your skills against the other Titans, with their cybernetically enhanced bodies and supernatural powers and finding out you could beat them?" Slade picked Robin up by the front of his shirt "Your telling me you didn't find some small measure of satisfaction in knowing they were no match for you, a mere ordinary human being? Robin spat blood at Slade's masked face,

"Go to hell!" he snarled ,while Slade had been talking Robin had fished out one of his electric discs and brought his hand up, it stuck to the side of Slade's metal mask. The man roared in pain as he sank to his knees, jagged snakes of electricity crawling all over his whole body. Jinx dashed forwards as the man fell and made a grab for Robin who delivered a ringing back handed slap across her face then spun bringing the edge of his hand down in a sharp motion to the base of her neck. The girl fell to the floor with a soft cry of pain, unconscious. He turned back to Slade who had got back to his feet after having wrenched the magnetic shock-disc off the side of his head. "Impressive," he said "most impressive"

The Titans walked through the high empty corridors of the Capitol building, it looked like there had been a war in here. Bits and pieces of more Sladetrooper robots were everywhere, there must have been hundreds of them in here. Cyborg picked up a bent piece of metal, it had at one point been Robin's fighting staff "Where is he?" he asked, Beast Boy was standing beside Cyborg in Dog form again "You smell him B.B?" The Dog shook it's head and continued sniffing around. From up ahead they heard Starfire shouting "Friends," she sounded disturbed "come immediately, I fear Robin is injured" they all hurried to where she was standing. A wide spray of blood was on one of the marble walls, Raven reached up and touched the wall. An image flashed in her mind of Robin, he was being slammed into the wall by a Sladetrooper, he hit it cheek first and exhaled heavily as he did so, blood sprayed from his mouth onto the wall. "It's Robin's alright" she lowered her hand "but I can't tell where he is now, he's here somewhere but something is hiding him from me" They continued to walk through the empty building. '

This is odd,' thought Raven 'why can't I sense Robin, we know he's in here' she turned to look at Starfire who was barely containing the urge to stride ahead of the group. 'I can't sense her either, I can't sense anyone' She stopped.

"Raven," said beast boy changing back in to his human form "what's up?"

"We have to leave _now_" she said, a hint of anxiety could be heard in her voice

"Are you okay Raven?" Cyborg stepped forward and put his hands on the girls' shoulders,

"No," said Raven her voice was shaking now "we have to leave now, it's not safe he-" From the shadows, a lit match arced and struck the ground, in a second a huge circle of flame surrounded the Titans. Inside the circle along its circumference strange runes began to glow, "Raven of Azarath!" a voice shouted from above them "I call you out!" Raven had dropped to her knees, her hood had been thrown back and she grabbed the sides of her head as if in great pain. "Raven," Starfire ran over to her "what is wrong Raven?" A black bolt of power launched her across the circle

"Get away from me!" yelled Raven, her voice sounded as if it were a room full of people speaking at once.

"Raven, what's goin' on" Cyborg's hand transformed into his sonic cannon and he began walking round the circle aiming high for whatever was causing his friend to do this. "Raven of Azarath! assume your true form" the voice shouted again. Beast Boy ran forward and pulled Raven's hands away from her hand and grabbed them tightly, she threw her head back and screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" her face was flickering between her normal face and one with four red glowing eyes. It was the face of her demon form, it only happened when Raven lost control of her emotions and the demon half of her soul was let loose. Raven began to grow in size till she filled the whole chamber, tentacles of darkness crept out from beneath her robe where her legs should be. One of them picked up Beast boy and tossed him away, in mid air he turned in to a cat and landed on his feet then resumed human form again. "_RAGE WILL CONSUME YOU_!" she roared and began advancing on the remaining three Titans. "Raven stop!" yelled Beast Boy, the huge four eyed head turned to look at him, "I don't know what's happening to you but it's us Raven," he said "your friends"

"Please Raven," Starfire flew up till she was level with Raven's head "you do not want to do this"

"STARFIRE!" Raven roared her face flickering back to normal for a second "BEHIND ME!". Looking past Raven's head a shape could be seen hunched in the darkness between two statues, it stood up startled and began to pack up a book it had in front of it. "Gotcha!" Cyborg aimed his cannon hand at the figure and hit it square in the back, it span through the air, it's long coat flying around it. It said a word no body heard properly and with a small thunderclap vanished. The book it had been carrying had been knocked out of its' hands by the force of Cyborg's blast and lay on the floor smoking. Raven's face switched back to normal and she shrank back to her regular human form of five foot five. Beast boy caught her as she stumbled backwards, "Whoa," he said "what happened there?" Raven shook him loose and strode over to the book, the flames of the circle dying at a wave of her hand. The book turned Black and flew into her hand, she took one look at the cover "Demonologists" she snarled narrowing her eyes, the book crumbled to dust. Turning back to other three she said "The only thing that can do that to me, apart from my losing control, is a powerful spell cast by a Demonologist, a studier and summoner of Demons. Whatever is happening here is bigger than a simple attack on a public building, we have to find Robin, _quickly"_

Slade's kick caught Robin in the chest and he coughed out a great clot of blood. Robin fell backwards and disappeared over a low table, he jumped back up roaring defiance and tossed two Baterrangs at Slade, they bounced harmlessly of his forearm armour. "You'll have to do better than that, Robin" Slade jeered "after doing so well against your own friends, who have beaten me time and time again, I should be nothing to you"

"Shut up," Robin roared, incandescent with rage "stop talking about that or I'll.. I'll..-"

"You'll what? kill me," Slade let out a low, mirthless laugh "if you had the guts for that you would have done it a long time ago, Robin" he drew a dagger from his belt and threw it in a quick snake like motion, it struck Robin in the thigh. Robin howled in pain as he pulled it out, but Slade was already across the room and had picked Robin up by his throat and was squeezing. "You may not be capable of killing me Robin," he said drawing him closer to his mask, Robin could feel Slade's breath on his face "but I am more than capable of killing you, _Tim_" Slade's hand came up and ripped off Robin's mask and threw it away. The world stopped it froze in a perfect crystalline moment. 'He knows who I am!'

"I know all about you, a poor street child taken in by Batman and trained to be Robin, everybody thought there was only one Robin but I know the truth, _Tim_" Slade continued to sneer. The world around Robin was dissolving, nothing was real anymore, he could feel his life slipping away as Slade continued to tighten his grip, choking him.

A howl of pain filled the building, Starfire snapped her head round to the direction it came from "Robin!" she screamed, the force of emotion behind it knocked Raven to her knees and caused Cyborg and Beast Boy to shudder. Starfire lifted off and flew down the corridor as fast as she could, "I am coming, Robin!"

A small thunderclap heralded Havelock's arrival in the debating chamber, Slade still held Robin in his hand who was gagging, struggling for air. The revelation that Slade knew who he was had caused his brain to shut down, Robin had been destroyed like a snowflake in a jet engine and he was just a kid in a playsuit. Havelock began to recite a spell from memory, the air in the chamber shimmered like it was above a highway on a hot day. The main door to the debating chamber was blasted apart by a bright green flash. Starfire charged into the room, eyes blazing, hands already charged with Starbolts "Where is Robin? tell me now" she commanded. Finally taking in the room she saw Slade with Robin in his outstretched arm, hand around his throat. She saw the life in Robin's eyes begin to fade, his unmasked eyes. The light in her eyes went out, the Starbolts faded, Robin had no mask on. She looked in to his eyes as he looked at her and saw the final spark of life go out like the last ember in a fire. Slade tossed Robin's body aside like a rag doll and chuckled, there was no humour in that laugh. The rest of the Titans charged in to the room, "Star' where's Robin" shouted Cyborg, but Starfire was on her knees staring open mouthed, at Robin's dead eyes looking straight at her. In the Circle Havelock finished his spell, smiled, waved. blew Raven a kiss, and then Havelock, Slade, the unconscious Jinx and the body of Robin vanished. A few seconds passed, and then Starfire screamed.

_to be continued..._

The red cross book; what _is _it? what _does_ it Do? who is the mysterious Havelock? and is Robin Really dead? all will be revealed in;

episode ii: what type of hero?, coming soon at the same teen time, same teen channel.


	2. What type of hero

**Teen titans**

**Robin reborn**

**Episode II: What type of hero?**

**by secondchild02**

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, if I did I sure wouldn't still be living in my parents' house would I? The only thing I do own in this story is Havelock and Vengeance (who? you say!) they aren't worth much. I don't have any money so please don't sue me. If I annoy DC Comics by writing this I'll go and clean their cars for a month, I promise, I'll even polish them, how's that for a deal?

Starfire sat on the roof of Titans tower, the place she spoke to him last and thought of Robin. Their leader, her best friend, her boy. She had called him that once, when he had been battling Fang, the spider headed boyfriend of Killer Moth's daughter. She had been so sure, so certain that there would be a future for the two of them it seemed impossible that anything would happen to any of them.

Wrapped around her hand was the scrap of fabric that had been his mask, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, it still had his scent. Robin had faced Slade countless times, how was he defeated this time? In her mind a smiling young girl with blonde hair presented herself, Terra, it had all changed since they had taken her in. She had befriended them, acquired their trust, and even had a thing with Beast Boy, but in the end had betrayed them to Slade. She had given him everything about them, flaws, weaknesses, perhaps even who they really were. A spark of anger flared inside Starfire, a sense of unfairness that perhaps Slade knew about who Robin was beneath the mask and not her. But now she would never truly know, yes she could find out from the objects in his room and his personal database but she would never truly know because he would never tell her. Never would Robin remove his mask, hold her by the hand and say "My name is..." because he was dead. She had watched him die, saw the last spark of life fade from his eyes, the eyes she had never seen before that time. She had imagined them as a cold, logical blue, as unreadable as his mask was but occasionally softening as he looked at her. She would never have thought them to be a soft brown and alive with a childish exuberance that matched her own. She smiled, but the smile froze as she remembered she would never see them again. Slade would pay with his own life if necessary despite it being a fundamental belief of the Titans to never kill but instead to bring wrongdoers to justice. The ideal had been believed in most strongly by Robin, and had been a little hard for some of the Titans to follow sometimes when tempers got out of control, Raven especially. But he was always there to explain it to them, always there to tell them why that had to be the way; "It's what makes us better than the villains we fight," he had said "because when we break down, it all breaks down" Starfire believed that too, but now Robin wasn't there to explain why and without that would the Titans be able to control their rage.

Robins' body lay on a slab in the warehouse which was surrounded by complex runes and symbols all drawn in a huge circle that took up most of the buildings floor. Jinx stood a little behind Slade watching Havelock wander around the circle putting the finishing touches to the strange symbols that were all around it. "What's he doing?" she asked

"He is finalizing the preparations for the ritual" answered Slade, in truth he had no idea what the demonologist was up to.

"What ritual?"

"The one that will apparently channel untold power into this world for me to command" that was all Slade was certain of. "And why did we need Robin?" Jinx was getting annoying now

"Personal preference, my dear, personal preference" In truth Slade wanted Robin because he was his first choice as an apprentice and had slipped through his fingers owing to Robins' inherent stubbornness. This time he would have Robin not as an apprentice but as a tool for him to use and then discard when the he had outlived his usefulness.

Havelock finished drawing a complex rune that made Jinx's head hurt to look at, looked up and nodded at Slade. "Proceed" the masked man replied. Havelock turned round and began to speak in a loud voice a language that sounded like he was clearing his throat. All the runes began to glow a bright yellow that built in intensity until they were nearly blinding and the air began to shimmer like heat haze. Havelock raised his hands above his head and continued, the runes began to flash different colours, purple, green, red and blue this happened slowly at first but it quickly built up in speed until the warehouse was a storm of colour. Jinx shaded her eyes and looked up at Slade who was leaning on the railings and staring straight into the blinding heart of the circle, she could tell from his body language that he was grinning beneath that mask of his. Slowly the inner circle of symbols began to dissolve in a stream of coloured dust that streamed towards the slab in the centre and began to cover Robin's body from head to toe. Havelock began to speak very quickly now with his strange words taking on an urgency that hadn't been there before and with each syllable Jinx felt an ever growing pressure over her whole body. She fell to her knees and tried to scream but the pressure had forced all the air from her lungs, looking up she saw Slade straining to remain standing. Before she blacked out she heard Havelock utter the final word of the spell and then the strange ringing silence that followed. She never heard the explosion.

The pressure of the spell released and blew every window out in the warehouse and destroyed most of the Sladetrooper robots that filled it. Havelock was blown across the huge room and Slade was sent running for cover as razor sharp glass and red hot machine parts filled the air. At the centre of the circle Robin's body flashed white and arced its back like it had been electrocuted, the eyelids flickered a bit but then it fell back to the slab and remained still.

Jinx came to slowly, the slow sound of movement could be heard, someone was making their way towards her through the debris. She felt hands picking her up and steadying her against the railing. "S-slade?" she asked opening her eyes slowly. "Wrong" came a voice it was a bit muffled as her ears were still ringing from the spell. "Havelock, what happened?" she finished opening her eyes and saw a face that was familiar but unexpected, she recoiled in fear "You!"

"Again, Wrong" said the person as their eyes flashed red from edge to edge, "but where is he?" Jinx screamed. As she blacked out again twisted laughter filled the air, deep, dark and terrible that hinted of mayhem and murder.

The four remaining Titans were gathered in the main room of Titans Tower, they all had an air of unease which was not surprising given recent events. "Where do we go from here?" asked Raven the others looked at each other "We find Slade," said Beast Boy "and take him out"

"Don't you mean take him down?" Cyborg asked

"You heard me" Beast Boy looked back at his friend with a strange look in his eyes.

"I disagree with Beast Boy," said Starfire in a small voice "but Slade must be dealt with in the most severe manner". Cyborg looked at Beast Boy, his eyes wide with disbelief "I can't believe you're talking about killing someone, even if it's Slade" he looked at Raven "What do you think about all this?". Raven lowered her hood, "I think the time for trying to bring Slade to justice is over," she said "I think it's time we put a stop to him once and for all"

"Yeah, we bring him in for the courts to deal with, we've done it to all the other villains, weirdos and bad guys we've gone after"

"None of them killed one of our friends, Cy, the thought of killing isn't one I like but it's time to take the gloves off" Beast Boy had began pacing back and forth

"Yeah, we get tough but we don't have to kill, remember what Robin taught us; when we break down it's over we end up no better than them!"

"Well maybe it's time to fight fire with fire" Raven folded her arms across her chest "Robin got the closest of any of us to Slade when he was Red-X, he recognised that only through being like him could we get near him" Starfire looked up from staring at her feet and spoke in a quiet yet commanding voice,

"From us he took a leader, a team mate and a friend. He did so easily and without hesitation, Robin was defeated because he cannot kill," she sniffed as a tear rolled down her cheek "I also would be unable to take a life. On Tamerran even the accidental slaying of the smallest insect is cause for grief, the thought of murder," she shivered at the word "even of someone such as Slade would be unforgivable and I would not be able to continue living if I aided in that. We must as Beast Boy says 'remove our gloves' but Slade must be apprehended and not slain by our hands" She looked back at her feet again and fell silent.

"Starfire," roared Beast Boy "how can you say that after what he took from us, from you, we know you and Robin were-" Raven flashed him a look that would have melted steel

"Shut up, Beast Boy"

"What?, everyone knew they had a thing for each other, it was obvious" he flopped down onto the sofa and snorted "I just don't get how she can stand there and not be mad" he looked up at Starfire and realised he had made a huge mistake. Tears were rolling down her face uncontrollably and her eyes were screwed shut in an effort to block out the outside world that had recently gone mad around her. "Star', I'm so sorry" he said and walked forward but Cyborg's hand appeared on his chest stopping him "I think you've done enough, man" Raven walked over to Starfire and put her arm around the girls shoulder "Come on." she said and steered Starfire towards the stairs who was now wailing loudly and shaking. "Star'?" asked Beast Boy, Raven once again shot him a look and took Starfire upstairs. "I'd hate to be you when she comes back down" said Cyborg looking down at his shorter friend who looked back at him wide eyed with confusion and panic who said "What?"

A few hours had passed and Raven was standing outside the door to Robin's room. She had had to put Starfire in a trance to get her to sleep because she was crying so hard she was forgetting to breathe but now she had something to do. With the wave of a hand the security keypad on the door turned black and four buttons depressed in a sequence that caused the door to slide open. She entered Robins room, she had never done so, she suspected not one of the Titans ever had. It was dark but a short investigation by the door frame found the light switch, it didn't improve matters much. One dull light bulb hung from a shadeless light fitting in the middle of the rooms ceiling, there was a bed that looked thin and uncomfortable, a desk that was littered with papers and bits of inventions Robin had been working on and a wardrobe that was built into the wall. A computer lay on the floor in the corner, it was off. It didn't look like a place someone lived but instead a place where someone came to sleep and even then not for great periods of time. Raven walked over to the wardrobe and slid the mirrored door open, the contents were perhaps the saddest thing she had ever seen; One Robin suit, One pair of green trousers, a spare utility belt, another pair of boots placed neatly at the bottom beside a shoebox that when opened contained a few spare masks. The only other item was a dry cleaning bag, she opened it, it held a pair of jeans and a brown t-shirt with "T.D." on a label stitched inside the collar. Raven found herself wondering what the initials stood for when she spotted something next to the bed, it was a photograph. Actually it was four photographs in a strip that had come from a photo booth and they were of Robin and Starfire. In each one they were in a different pose laughing and joking, shoving each other around but it was in the last one that Robin was standing behind Starfire with his arms around her shoulders. It looked funny because he just a little shorter than Starfire but they were both looking right at the camera and both looked so happy, Raven noticed the strip of tiny photographs had been wrapped in plastic so to keep them safe.

Looking around the bare room it was easy to see why Robin was like how he was, he wore it all on the outside and didn't have anytime for much on the inside. He trained harder than anyone else, worked long into the night to catch Slade, denied himself a relationship with Starfire, slept in this barren cell of a bedroom and wore that mask. 'Why?, he was no different from the rest of us,' thought Raven but she was wrong. Robin had been the only one of them who was, when you got down to it, normal. The rest of them couldn't walk down the street without attracting some form of attention. Cyborg was, well, a cyborg, Beast Boy was green, Starfire didn't understand Earth and she was so pale her skin was grey. Even if she changed out of her robes and body suit she would still look odd but all Robin had to do was take off his mask and wear those jeans and that T-shirt and he would just blend right in. She then realised that he had to do all those things to himself so he could set himself apart from everyone else, even the rest of the Titans. Was he punishing himself for being the only one of them who could have a normal life? Raven once again looked around the empty room and felt a shiver pass through, her she whispered "Who were you?"

Slade sat on a pile of debris in the warehouse resting his chin on his hand examining the figure in front of him. It kept flexing its' fingers and stretching its' arms, doing the occasional back flip and laughing. "Who are you?" he asked quietly. The figure stepped forward and looked at Slade critically,

"Who asks?"

"My name is Slade, what is yours?". A few seconds passed while the figure thought about it

"Vengeance, my name is Vengeance"

"Very well," said Slade "I have summoned you here for a purpose, Vengeance" Vengeance's eyes flashed red and the air crackled with barely contained fury "No one _summons_ Vengeance!" the building shook at the roar "I am called and I judge if you are worthy to receive me"

"And am I worthy?" asked Slade. Vengeance grinned evilly

"I am here am I not?". There was a noise and a cloud of dust from the other side of the warehouse, Havelock stood up and shook his head, "Did it work Mister Slade?" he rushed over, tripping over his long coat and bits of debris until he was a few feet away from Vengeance. "Did it work, did it really wor-" Havelock grabbed at his throat, Vengeance was staring intently at him frowning. "You will speak when spoken to worm!" Havelock was making gagging noises as he fell to his knees. "Slade, who is this?" Vengeance continued staring at Havelock who was turning blue. 'He is the one who allowed you to enter this world and who can keep you here so I advise you to not damage him" Slade had stood up now and had walked over to Vengeance, he put his hand on Vengeance's shoulder. Vengeance turned round suddenly and focused his full attention on Slade, Havelock gasped as he could suddenly breath again while the air around Vengeance distorted like a bubble and blew Slade across what was left of the warehouse. The man hit the far wall and slid down to hit the floor yelling in pain as his left glove had been burned off and the skin beneath was bubbling and blistering. "Do not touch me again, Slade" said Vengeance quietly.

"Impressive," the injured man said "the Titans will be no match for you"

"Who are the Titans?" asked Vengeance "Your enemies?"

"Indeed, Vengeance, indeed. I wish you to destroy them for me". Vengeance grinned again,

"Finally the fun part"

It had taken some time but the Titans had tracked him down, Gizmo was robbing another bank which seemed to be his crime of choice these days. Beast Boy and Cyborg exited the T-Car and stood watching the pint sized super-criminal stomp about on his four huge mechanical legs that grew out of his back-pack as he packed sacks of money into a van. "He never learns does he?" muttered Cyborg as they walked towards the bank. "Hey Gizmo!" Cyborg fired a sonic blast from his cannon that took out one of Gizmo's mechanical legs. The boy genius balanced on the three remaining legs and scowled at the approaching trio, "If it isn't the Teen Snotbags," he sneered "say, where's the Goth, Bird-Boy and the Bimbo?" Beast boy transformed into a huge green gorilla and jumped in front of Gizmo and roared until he ran out of breath. Gizmo blinked and with a flick of his wrist produced a remote control that launched two missiles from the van at Beast Boy, there was a white light and he was blown across the street in to a mail box. Burnt and still flaming letters precipitated around Beast Boy who himself was dazed and smoking. Reaching up to his head he moaned "Dude! You ruined my do!" Cyborg ran screaming at Gizmo and in a second had ripped off two of the remaining spider legs that grew out of the boys back-pack. "Where's Slade, Gizmo?" Cyborg had Gizmo by the collar of his jumpsuit "we know you work for him sometimes so where is he?"

"Even if I knew would I tell you?, Tin-man"

"Oh you'd better start talking soon, Kid" Cyborg tossed Gizmo back on to the ground and aimed his cannon at the him. "You think that scares me, you good guys can't hurt me even if you wanted to that's what makes you the good guys" Gizmo smirked and stuck his tongue out at Cyborg who lowered his hand. The punk was right, they couldn't hurt him just to get information after all they weren't that type of hero. Robin had told them stories about some of the things Batman had done to get information out of crooks and they could tell Robin wasn't exactly comfortable with some of his methods. He looked down at Gizmo, the kid couldn't have been older than about ten and here he was threatening him with a sonic blast to the face. What was happening to them? The world blurred as he felt an impact on his side and went skidding across the tarmac sending up sparks as his torso plating met the asphalt. He heard a loud crunch and then a scream, he managed to look back in time to see Beast Boy transform back to his human form from that of a huge tiger. Gizmo was hunched over screaming,, blood was pumping out of his wrist, no, it was a stump where his wrist should be. Beast Boy had bitten off the boys' hand. Cyborg froze as he saw his friend who was normally such a huge goof ball quivering with rage, blood covering his snarling teeth and dripping off his chin. Beast Boys' eyes burned with hatred "Where is Slade?" he yelled sending bloody spit all over Gizmos' pale, shaking face. "Where is he?" he yelled again "or do you want to lose a leg next?" Cyborg couldn't believe this was happening. Gizmo managed to stop screaming for a second to blurt out "I don't know but I heard Jinx did a job for him in Gotham" he cried in pain again before looking at Cyborg with pleading eyes "Cyborg, call him off, please!" Beast Boy turned sharply on his heel and headed back towards the car, he pulled his communicator out and flipped it open with a chirping noise "Raven, find Jinx" he snapped it shut before Raven could respond and got back in the car. Cyborg got slowly to his feet and ran over to Gizmo who had passed out and he used his own communicator to summon an ambulance to the scene.

As the lights from the ambulance faded in to the distance he got back in to the T-car where in the passenger seat Beast Boy sat staring straight ahead. "Have you lost it?," he said "you could have killed him"

"So," Beast Boy's voice was level and cold "we have to do whatever it takes to find Slade remember? and if you won't then I will" Cyborg recognised the tone in his friends' voice and it was the same one that Robin had used when he'd talked about Slade. "That doesn't mean you can bite off peoples' limbs, man" Cyborg put his hand on his friends' shoulder "what's gotten into you? I know Robins' death has sent us all on a bit of a trip, but you got to calm down or you'll kill someone" Cyborg felt his friends shoulders sag a little

"Vic?" said Beast Boy which caught Cyborg a little off guard.

"You haven't called me that in three years, Gar, what's up, man"

"He was the first person I ever met who wasn't afraid of me, the first person who treated me as if I was a human being and not some freak. He found me in an alleyway eating out of a dumpster, in those days he worked out of a loft downtown, and he took me in. He made me into a person, gave me my name 'Beast Boy' and taught me that I was a man who could turn into animals but still be a man on the inside. He gave me the life I have today, I owe him everything and now he's gone I'm scared I'll lose it all." Beast Boy was now crying, much how Starfire had cried earlier, uncontrollably and driven by runaway emotion. "Garfield," said Cyborg "you will never lose it all, you're a part of our team, of out family. People like us, like you, me, Raven and Starfire don't fit in and never will so we use our abilities and skills to help others and in doing so gain an acceptance of sorts. As long as we have each other we'll be okay"

"Yeah, you're right" Beast Boy sniffed "lets hope Raven gets more information out of Jinx"

"We'd better hurry and track her down" Cyborg started the engine and moved the car away from the bank.

"Yeah, Jinx'll tell us where Slade is" Beast Boy had that tone in his voice again.

"No, Raven"

"Huh?" Beast Boy looked confused "why?"

"Coz if she gets mad it's all over". Cyborg sent the T-car sliding round a corner and sped off into the night.

It was in a coffee house on a side street downtown that Raven found Jinx. It had been a cellar of an old town house so the ceiling was low and the lack of windows made it nice and gloomy, just how Raven liked it. Her cloak was shut and her hood was up so all that could be seen of her was the lower half of her deathly pale face. The air inside the cafe was so thick with smoke from all the people who gathered there to smoke whatever drug was in fashion that it looked like fog. However, it drifted harmlessly around her so that she was left in a bubble of unpolluted air. She spotted her quarry in a booth by the juke box where Jinx was flirting and being fawned over by some guy in a leather trench coat. As Raven walked over with her cloak swirling around her the candles on the tables flickered and behind the dry bar milk turned to cheese in the fridge. Jinx and her companion didn't notice her appear at the edge of the table being too busy whispering to each other to notice. Raven grinned an unhealthy grin and looked at the young man Jinx was with, "Leave!" she said calmly but her voice had a dark edge to it. Jinx looked suddenly up at Raven, her eyes narrowed and glittering with malice. Her companion simply went slacked jawed, blank eyed and stood up and walked out of the coffee house. "Nice party trick, Raven," Jinx taunted the Azarathian "when will he stop walking and remember who he is?"

"When he gets to Metropolis, Jinx" Raven had sat down and taken her hood down, her piercing dark blue eyes were cold and empty as she looked at Jinx. It was taking all of Ravens' control to not rip the little witch apart, she had been there when Robin had died, correction, been murdered by Slade. "So what brings you down here?, bored? or just lost?" Jinx crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side "maybe you're cruising for boys?" a wry smile appeared on her lips "but I don't think so, you would have brought the other one with you too but she's hung up on the Boy Wonder isn't she? Can't blame her though, he's got a great butt". Raven cracked her knuckles beneath the table as she did so a mug on a far away table exploded.

"Where is Slade?" Ravens' eyes flashed red.

"Don't know, but if you see him be a good goth tell him Jinxy's looking for work" Jinx sipped her coffee and stood up only to be slammed back in to her seat by an invisible pair of hands. "Where is Slade? what did you do for him in Gotham?" Raven asked again but this time her voice had a strange reverberation and the iris's of her eyes slowly changed to a blood red and she seemed to get even paler, if that was possible. "Now we all know what happens if little Raven loses her temper, don't we?" Jinx was audibly annoyed now

"What?, this?" her eyes briefly flickered to a young man sitting on the floor by the bar hatch with glazed eyes and spit dribbling out of his mouth. He flashed black for a second and began to contort into weird shapes, his mouth could be seen locked in silent scream of unspeakable pain. The black aura vanished and what was left was a grotesque parody of flesh that looked more like some hairless dog than a human being. Jinx was silent with horror, her eyes wide, face grey with nausea "Feel like making me lose my temper?" Raven growled at her. Jinx gulped trying not to vomit, the thing steamed and stank like death and felt the invisible hands that held her down reach down inside her and wrap round her heart. "Tell me what I want to know and you might make it out of here alive, you little bitch" Raven purred as she traced little figure eight with her finger in some spilled coffee. "Go to hell Raven, Slade's already sent someone powerful after you and your friends"

"Really, who would that be?" Raven smiled, that alone unnerved Jinx. "who would that be?"

It was dark and she was hungry. Starfire slowly opened the door to her room and peered out into the dark corridor. Raven had dressed her in an oversized purple T-shirt before she had put her in a trance so she could sleep and the still air of the tower felt icy on her bare legs and feet. Thunder rolled round the outside of the tower "Eep!" Starfire let out a small cry of fear at the noise before realising it was just thunder. Robin had explained to her that it was just the weather and not an alien attack. She put on her pink bathrobe and went out into the corridor, lightening flashed at one end showing the staircase down to the main room. Shivering she set out towards it, the floor was cold on her feet but she didn't notice and slowly she began to descend the staircase. At the bottom she froze, in front of the big window that looked out over the city someone was there.

The coffee house was empty now, everyone had ran off when the fight had started. Jinx rolled behind a smashed up table as a blast of black power sizzled past her head and struck the wall behind her. The stones flashed white hot and bubbled out onto the floor. "Tell me about the Demonologist, Jinx. I know he has one working for him" Raven cartwheeled out of the way of hex and landed by the bar, her eyes flashed white "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" she cried and moved her arms in windmill motion. All the tiny fragments of smashed coffee mugs picked themselves up and zipped towards Jinx's hiding place with some bouncing off the overturned table and some going through it. Jinx tried to dive to one of the booths for safety, Raven simply followed her with her eyes and sent on huge piece of debris smashing in to the girls' calf muscle, blood splattered the mirror on the wall and Jinx howled in pain. Raven strode over to where she was nursing her injuries to see that most of her right calf was gone, it was like something had bitten her. "Tell me or I will really hurt you" Raven looked bigger and her now red eyes glowed infernally.

"Eat me, bitch" snarled Jinx. Behind Raven a string of coffee mugs rose from the bar surrounded by a black aura and snaked through the air towards Raven where they parted and flowed round her head smashing into Jinx's face one after the other at incredible speed. Jinx lay wheezing in the remains of the booth, her face all bloodied up and swollen. "I ask again, tell me about the demonologist?" Jinx smiled a grotesque smile and bloody saliva ran between her remaining front teeth "You're too late, it's been done already"

"What has been done?, what is Slade up to?" Raven demanded. Jinx had a far away look in her eyes and spoke in a sing-song voice "He's gonna get you" she chuckled. Raven roared with all her fury and Jinx looked up into four red eyes as two hands grasped the side of her head. "As you won't tell me," a deep echoing voice said "I will take it from you". Jinx grinned as white light engulfed her vision.

"Who is there, Identify yourself" Starfire stood at the bottom of the staircase looking at the intruder as they stood framed by the lights of the distant city in the window. The figure stood silently looking out at the city. "Again, identify yourself, stranger or I will awaken my friends and there will be unpleasantness" Starfire took a step forward. "You are alone in the tower, Starfire, the others are out there" the figure nodded towards the city. "Who are you, the voice is familiar but it cannot be as I do not know who you are" Starfire was now a few feet away from the figure but couldn't see him clearly as it was dark and Ravens' trance still hadn't worn off fully. It turned in a swirl of cape to face her "Of course you know me, K'ory" a pair of soft brown eyes smiled at her. Starfire melted inside, the world had swung back to normal "But I saw you die"

"It was a dream, K'ory, just a dream" two strong arms wrapped round her shoulders, Starfire did the same and pulled herself close to the other person, she couldn't believe it though. "Then I am happy, I could not bear to lose you even if it was only an imagining"

"K'ory, there something I have to tell you" was whispered in her ear;.

"Yes?" she was trembling.

"I haven't been honest with you"

"It is okay, whatever it is, it is okay" she pulled out of the hug and looked at those eyes again.

"K'ory," Starfire looked back with big happy eyes "It wasn't a dream"

Cyborg made his way down the steps into the broken shell of the coffee house, he'd made Beast Boy wait in the car "Raven?," called Cyborg his shoulder light snapping up and on "you in here?" There was the sound of meditative breathing from the corner. He switched his eye to thermal scanning and found a slight figure sitting in the corner behind an overturned table. He picked it up and found Raven sitting hunched up in a ball with her knees drawn in against her chest, her hood was up and her eyes were closed. "Hey Rae, you okay?" Raven pointed towards the booth behind Cyborg. He turned slowly and saw Jinx. She was kneeling with her arms outstretched like she was trying to defend herself, completely frozen. "What did you do?" Cyborg asked.

"I know what he's planning Cyborg" her voice was the same as always; level, without emotion.

"How do you know?" but Cyborg new the answer to that question. He looked again at the living statue that was Jinx. "We won't be able to stop him, Cyborg" Raven still had her eyes firmly shut.

"We've stopped Slade before, we'll do it again"

"Not Slade, this time it's someone else"

"Who?" Cyborg asked "Raven, who? why won't you open your eyes?"

"Because it won't go away!" she threw back her hood and looked at him, the colour of her eyes was blood red. "Raven," Cyborg picked her up, normally she would have pushed him away but it had been a strange week "let's get you home"

He placed her in the back of the T-car lying her across the back seat, he had wrapped a white bandage round her eyes and drawn her cloak round her. As they sped through the city back to the tower Beast boy turned to look at her. "What's up with her eyes, man" he whispered back at Cyborg

"I don't know, I just don't know" Cyborg looked at Raven in the rear view mirror, the regular rise and fall of her chest indicated she was asleep. Beast Boy noticed it too and uncharacteristically left her alone. Beast boy pressed a button on the control panel in front of him, suddenly a loud Claxton filled the cab,

"Whoa!, wasn't me" Beast Boy threw up his hands in a gesture of innocence.

"It's the tower alarm, something's happening at the Tower" Cyborg shifted down a gear and stomped his huge steel foot to the floor. The T-car's engine howled like an angel at mardi-gras and the outside world blurred past the windows. a switch was flicked on the steering column and every traffic light in front of the Car went green, they had a clear run to the tower.

The long bridge to Titan Island raised from beneath the bay and they rocketed across it hitting sections of it just as they locked in place. The tower loomed above them, the top level of the giant T had every window blown out. "Starfire!" it was Raven, she had woken up, her eyes were still covered but she was reaching out towards the windshield. "Hurry, we haven't much time". Cyborg nodded and hit the afterburner.

The main door was smashed aside as the T-car skidded to a halt and collided with the back wall. The Titans piled out of the car and ran up the stairs, Raven teleported in the form of a giant black bird that passed soundlessly through the ceiling. When Beast Boy and Cyborg burst in to the main room Raven had thrown her cloak over Starfire who was lying on the floor. She was covered in small burns and her hair was matted with blood, one eye was swollen shut. Raven was pressing two of her fingers into the girls neck "Her pulse is weak, Cyborg get her to the medical bay" the mechanical wonder stepped forwards and picked up the slight girl in his arms. he turned to take to the towers med-lab. "Wait," Beast boy had leapt forward and grabbed Starfires' hand, there was something in it. He slowly prised her fingers open and took out what she was holding. It was a small black disc made of metal and it was covered in dried blood, he looked back at Starfires' hand and saw the palm of which was sliced in a circle. Whatever it was she had held it so tightly she had cut her hand open with it. Beast Boy watched Raven and Cyborg go down to the medical bay as he scraped some of Starfires' dry blood off the thing she had been holding revealing a tiny flake of yellow. He rushed over to the sink and washed off the rest of the blood. After drying it he saw what it was, his green face went almost white. It was a black disc with a yellow R on it.

R for Robin.

_To Be continued_

Is robin alive? if so then why would he almost kill Starfire? will Beast Boy go Wild? will Raven get her eyes Back? What does she know about Slade's new plan? and who is too powerful for them to stop?

you have to wait for

Episode III; Echoes of a soul

Authors note; that's episode 2 done. a bit darker than the first one but that had to be expected. I wanted to try and guess what they would do if they had lost robin, yeah BB is acting OOC but he's lost one of his closest friends of course he's act weird. I know there isn't much for Starfire to do yet except stand there and be helpless and cry about her lost love but that's the kind of person I think she is, I promise you she'll have more to do later on. Yeah I kinda made raven lose it again in this episode but again she's not exactly a good guy in my eyes. She's capable of so much darkness and I picture her of having a kind of Batman like attitude to getting information from people so she aint afraid to hurt people to get what she wants. I promise we'll hear from the old man next episode. till then.


	3. Echoes of a Soul

**Teen titans**

**Robin Reborn**

**Episode III: Echoes of a Soul**

**by Secondchild02**

Disclaimer: I still don't own Teen Titans or Batman, never will, don't worry I have a great therapist. Following story contains a quote from Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker

A shadow thickened in an alleyway and turned into a running figure that stumbled and tripped all over the slimy cobblestones. Clutching at its' head it fell into a puddle getting its' bright red, yellow, and green costume wet. He was disoriented and confused; where was he? who was he? why was he in these ridiculous clothes? He looked at his hands that had been throbbing since he woke up and saw that the knuckles were bruised and cut and his side ached and was sticky with blood. Had he been fighting? Who had he been fighting? Reflected in the surface of the puddle he saw his face. It was boyish but not too young with black spiky hair and innocent brown eyes. He also noticed that one side of it was bloodied and burned and he seemed to have only one ear. What had happened to him?

A sound made him look up. Three youths had emerged from a side alley and were cautiously advancing on him. "I told you it was him" said the tallest of them.

"I don't believe it, Robin, the Boy Wonder," said one of the others "he looks a little messed up. No mask too I see"

"I never figured him to have brown eyes, I thought more of a grey" said the first again. The one who was yet to speak rushed forward and kicked him in the ribs, Robin gasped as the air rushed out his lungs.

"What the hell you do that for?" asked the second grabbing the third by his jacket

"If we take him out then we'll get in the new Jokers gang for sure" replied the third pushing his friend away

"Jokers huh?, I always figured you for a clown, you idiot, and don't kick him again his friends might be nearby" the second said.

"Quiet!" the tall one turned to look at them both "just rough him up and take his stuff, it should be worth something to the right people". Robin looked at them,

"Help me," he said "who am I?" as the three youths circled him. They looked hesitantly at him as if expecting something. "Gentlemen?" said the second one and kicked Robin hard in the side, he cried out but was cut short by a huge fist to the face. He hit the ground face first and shut his eyes tight, whatever they wanted they would be finished soon.

There was a flash in his head, flames, broken glass, green light, a scream that pierced his soul and shook the world. Then the cool of night and nothing more.

Robin lay in the alleyway feeling his body being beaten for a reason that he couldn't figure out and wished he wasn't there. Inside he let go.

A few minutes later Vengeance dusted himself down and examined his attackers. One was melted into a dumpster, another was a pile of ash, and the last lay about the alleyway in sticky chunks. 'How did I get here?' he thought looking at his surroundings 'doesn't matter'. With little effort he healed the wounds he had and walked deeper into the alleyway where in a dull flash of red light and he was gone. Only an elderly Tom-cat saw him vanish, it didn't care.

Starfire remembered.

"_It wasn't a dream"_

The smile faded from her face as a twisted grin appeared on Robins'. "What do you mean?" asked Starfire, her small eyebrows frowning in confusion. Robin turned round to look out of the window again "You watched Robin die, you saw the final spark of life fade from his eyes. K'ory, may I call you K'ory? it doesn't matter anyway, I am not Robin" Starfire began to back away slowly towards the main door to the room,

"If you are not Robin then who are you?" her head swam, the world was going mad again. He turned, his soft brown eyes gone and replaced with two bright red orbs that burned in his head the colour of fire from edge to edge, pupil-less and soulless. "I am Vengeance" the confident voice of Robin was replaced with a menacing rasp. He narrowed his eyes and raised his hand, Starfire stopped her retreat towards the door and a red glow surrounded her body and pressed down on to her skin. She cried out in pain, every inch of her body felt as if it was on fire, "and you are going to die, K'ory" Vengeance opened his eyes wide and they seemed to glow brighter than before. The pain intensified, Starfire ran out of breath to scream with and her delicate, attractive face was locked in a silent mask of agony as her skin began to burn and blister. Vengeance threw his head back and let loose a laugh that echoed throughout the tower and seemed to fill the world. Starfire was beyond any mortal measure of pain and in a tiny part of her soul she heard a small voice welcome the absence of pain that death would bring. The rest of her screamed defiance and opened her eyes. Two emerald beams struck Vengeance full in the chest blasting him off his feet and out the main window of Titans Tower. Starfire floated in mid air, eyes blazing with bright green light as she felt the righteous fury fill her whole being. Whatever this thing was that had taken Robins' body, she was going to stop it. She floated over to the broken window feeling the cold air gusting through the smashed pane. She could see nothing except the long drop to the rocks below, in the pounding surf there was a distinct absence of a broken red clad body. "That all you got?" a red burst of energy struck Starfire knocking her from her feet. Vengeance rose from the side of the tower amid a crackling ball of red lightening with his hair and cape whipping around in his own private hurricane. "I thought you were meant to be tougher than you look?" he lightly floated in through the hole in the glass and stood back on the carpet. Starfire picked herself up and glared at Vengeance "What happened to Robin? why are you in his body?"

"I told you, he died," Vengeance smiled mischievously "and I brought it back to life, with a little help from Slade of course" at the mention of Slade's name Starfire bared her teeth in a sneer.

"He will suffer for what he has done to Robin, but you will be first" she launched herself at Vengeance flying across the room at chest height launching Starbolts that smashed into furniture and windows, burning the carpet and ripping through the sofa. Vengeance spun as she passed bringing his fist down and smashed it into her face sending Starfire into the floor at full speed. In a tangle of limbs she rolled to a stop and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid a ball of red energy that burned through the floor and would have made short work of her head if she hadn't moved. Leaping forward to behind a computer terminal she let loose a series of small starbolts, Vengeance cried out in pain as several of them burned one side of his face.

Behind the terminal Starfire shut her eyes tight at the sound of Robin screaming as she burned his face, his handsome face. But that face didn't belong to Robin anymore, he was dead. If Robin was in there anywhere he wouldn't have hurt her so much, she could feel her face swelling up where he had punched her. "K'ory," Vengeance rasped "you wouldn't want to hurt your precious Robin now". Starfire rose from behind the console "Robin is dead, you are not him" once again she fired her eye beams and caught Vengeance a glancing blow on the shoulder as he dodged. She followed him letting her eye beams cut through the remaining furniture with ease as she sought to get to Vengeance but he flipped and vaulted over the debris of the main room with ease and landed back in front of the windows grinning. "Easy there K'ory, don't want to wreck your home now do you?"

"Do not call me K'ory" she roared, starbolts and eye beams were cut loose in a blinding emerald storm of rage. Vengeance shielded himself with his arms as they hit him nearly being knocked off his feet. Starfire concentrated harder, the light of her attack glowed brighter but was met with a crackling red cloud of energy as Vengeance focused his own energy towards Starfire. His eyes glowed red and he surrounded by an aura of fire as slowly Starfire's attack was forced back, she grunted with effort but it was in vain. Vengeance grinned "It is useless to resist!" the voice wasn't Robin's, no human voice box could make that sound, it was low and rasping, edged with malice and dripping pure evil. "I intended to simply destroy you but now, I will break your mind, you will be trapped in your own body, a prison of flesh with you at its' core, you will see what you have to eat to stay alive and be aware of everything as I make you a pet and plaything to the worst horrors you can imagine". Vengeance's face was locked in a reptilian smile as his attack bore down on the girl. "You will pray for a death that will never come, K'ory, may I call you K'ory"

"I said do not call me K'ory" Starfire felt more angry than she ever had before, Robin had been taken from her, she had been attacked by an entity that wore Robins body and it was going to enslave her for a life of physical and mental abuse. Not again, her parents had sacrificed her to save Tamerran and doomed her to a life similar to the one Vengeance promised. Not again.

She screamed and the force of it blew out all the windows and shattered every glass in the small kitchen. The massive television screen exploded outwards, the computer banks were lost in a snowstorm of sparks and she became enveloped in a solid pillar of green energy that expanded and filled the whole room. Starfire stared hard at Vengeance who grinned and began to repel her new burst of power but suddenly looked distracted.

In his mind Vengeance felt a tug, it was like having a tooth pulled out in his brain, as something in the city was drawing in all the ambient magical power like a sponge. It was powerful, not as powerful as he was but it could be, definitely a lot of promise here. He reached out to lightly brush the mind that was drawing in all this power. A vision of four glowing red eyes filled his own mind, the slowly turned in to four huge yellow eyes in a massive red head that laughed a deep, deafening laugh that shook the universe.

Trigon.

Vengeance recoiled in shock, losing focus as the mind drew in his own power, he felt himself fading back to the void from where he had come from. Never again, this world was too much fun.

The red glow faded from Vengeance's eyes and was replaced by a bewildered set of soft brown eyes, "Starfire?" it was Robin's voice and looking into those eyes Starfire knew it was Robin and not Vengeance. She gasped but the burst of power she had released couldn't be stopped. "Robin!" she screamed but it was too late. Starfire's incredible release of power struck Robin burning his skin and uniform and blasting him out of the broken windows, she darted forward to save him but only grabbed at his uniform pulling the black metal disc with the yellow R on from his chest. He fell and with wide open eyes she watched him tumble end over end towards the jagged rocks that surrounded the tower. She didn't want to watch but couldn't draw herself away from the window. Robin looked back up at Starfire and his eyes said it all, suddenly his body arced like it had hit a power line and his eyes flashed red again. Before he hit the rocks, Vengeance vanished in a small thunderclap.

Starfire wandered back into the centre of the main room surveying the damage and gripping the black disc form Robin's uniform in her hand. She saw her home in ruins, looked down at her bare legs that were peppered with cuts and burns, her arms were similar but her hands were aching from the huge release of power. She fell to her knees crying for a reason she couldn't determine; exhaustion, grief, pain, she just didn't know. Her free hand touched her bruised and swollen face and smeared some of her blood down her cheek. Staring at her blood covered hand and gripping the hastily grabbed piece of Robin's uniform she passed out. She never felt her head hit the ground.

Raven stood watching Starfire through the observation window in the med-lab. The Tamerranian was sitting with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. Raven had accepted her own condition and had left it be for now, her vision was unaffected so it didn't matter right now as there were more important things to think about. In her pale hand she held the object that Starfire had been holding when they had found her. A black metal disc no bigger than two inches in diameter bearing a bright yellow R, it was easily recognisable as they saw it every day; the trademark symbol on Robins uniform. From what Starfire had told them and now with this physical evidence there was no doubt that Robin was still alive somewhere. Raven felt a strange happy feeling rising in her chest, their leader wasn't dead and there was a chance they could save him. She looked back at Starfire who had stopped crying, in fact she hadn't cried for hours but was just staring into space, her large innocent eyes strangely blank. Raven could sense no overriding emotion from her friend, it changed from second to second and she wondered if even Starfire knew what she was thinking herself.

In fact one thought was running through Starfires mind; "Robin is alive" she knew this wasn't strictly true but the Vengeance being had been distracted for some reason and Robin had lived again if only for a few minutes. His eyes had said one thing as he fell, _'I will come back for you, I promise'_. She smiled slightly as she thought 'And I will come to get you'. Behind the window Raven heard the thought above the noise in Starfire's head and nodded a silent agreement. In the meantime there was something that had to be done and she wished she didn't have to.

Once again Raven found herself standing in front of a door few Titans had ever entered, Robins crime lab. The gun metal grey door slid aside as she entered the code into the door, a darkness similar to that of Robin's barren room lay beyond it. There was only a table in the centre of the room that was littered with bits and pieces of inventions again and news paper clippings. Some mouldy wax cartons were piled up in and around a cheap plastic bucket beside the desk and a slight smell of stale Chinese food and cheap instant Ramen filled the air. Looking at it Raven wondered exactly how much time the Boy Wonder spent in here? She clicked on the desk lamp making the walls visible and Raven gasped in shock. More news paper clippings covered the walls as well as notes in Robins' sharp spiky handwriting, pictures, bits and pieces of magazine articles that criticised the Titans and questioned their effectiveness at crime fighting, crime files, and the most chilling item of all; Slade's Mask. Raven gasped, the empty eye hole on the brass and black mask stared balefully at her she half expected it to speak to her in Slade's calm level tones about how he enjoyed killing Robin and would do so to them all. She shivered and noticed that the mask had been placed almost reverentially at the centre of a web of thought that covered the four walls of the room. It wasn't Slade's real mask of course but instead a copy that had belonged to his robot double that Robin had battled following his exposure as Red X. She noticed the laptop on the table as well, she had no idea Robin even owned one but figured if he had to get in touch with _Him_ then he could hardly pick up the phone now could he. Raven thought for a second about who she would be speaking to in a few minutes. Batman.

Robin hadn't spoken of him very often but when he had there was something there in his voice and Raven sensed something in the back of his mind too. He often talked about Nightwing, the first Robin, who he admired greatly. Batgirl was mentioned now and again and when she was Beast Boy would become glassy eyed and jealous of Robin for ever being near her. But Batman, whenever that name was brought up Robin moved on and changed the subject quickly. Raven often wondered why, it had started after Robin had been called to assist Batman when he was injured. It was only meant to be for a few days but Robin was gone for almost a six months. Upon his return he seemed different, he was more driven, determined to win often resulting in a complete loss of control when he couldn't catch a criminal or figure out a clue in a case. Raven had often heard him down in the gym in the small hours of the morning beating the crap out of himself on the machines, yelling and cursing at himself for being a failure and that he would never be as good as Batman. Quite often his language would have made Starfire burst into tears if she had heard it but Raven had heard worse, much worse, in her time.

After activating the lap top it took only about two minutes of searching to find what she had been looking for; a small icon shaped like a black stylised Bat on a yellow background. A double-click brought up a window that was all black with white writing that said "Connecting". She turned to look back at the Slade mask on the wall, it was still looking at her, how could Robin work in here with that thing staring at him. She walked over to it and touched it.

_Robin held the mask in his hands "Who are you?" he asked "What do you want?" in an almost_

_trance like state he peered into the upturned mask in his hands. Then almost as if pulled by a magnet his hands began to rise, drawing the mask onto his own face._

Raven drew back from the mask a little disoriented and sat in the chair at the desk trying to rid herself of the disturbing image of Robin putting on Slade's mask. Her daze was interrupted by a deep serious voice "Who is this?" turning to look at the laptop she saw the full screen filled with a video message window, a tiny camera blinked its red LED eye at her from the top of the screen. In the window was the head and shoulders of a man with the top half of his face obscured by a black cowl styled to look like a bat, it even had pointed ears. The white slits of the mans eyes narrowed and he asked again "Who is this? Where's Robin?". The realisation hit her, this was Batman.

"Uh," said Raven momentarily frozen with shock "Robin isn't here right now?"

"Then who are you? and where is he?" Batman sounded extremely annoyed.

"I'm Raven" she couldn't believe how stupid she must sound but realisation dawned on Batman's face which softened slightly. "Ah," he said "one of the Teen Titans. Why are _you_ calling me and not Robin?" Batman sounded eager to find out about where his former partner was. "Because Robin is, well, missing"

"Missing?"

"He's been having a hard time recently with some personal stuff and he-"

"Skip it, where is he?" interrupted Batman

"He's been captured by Slade and using a demonic ritual been possessed by a creature calling itself Vengeance" stated Raven flatly.

"I see," Batman raised his hand to his chin "is there any possibility of reversing the ritual and restoring Robin?"

"I have no idea, the magic involved is extremely advanced and this Vengeance might just be too powerful for us to deal with. We have information that ties this into a theft in Gotham City, at the museum"

"The Red Cross Book" said Batman, Raven looked confused..

"The what?" she raised a thin eyebrow.

"The Red Cross Book was part of an exhibit of ancient scrolls and texts on display in the Gotham City museum. A week ago it was stolen, I'm still trying to find out who did it, I take it you have information?"

"Yes, it was a member of the HIVE called Jinx who was working for Slade." Raven looked down at her hands and caught her reflection in a piece of metal on Robin's desk with its blood red eyes in place of the violet they should be. "Where is this Jinx now?" Batman asked.

"Jump City Psychiatric Hospital, she's in a coma. She's not expected to wake up. Ever" Raven tried to hide the guilt in her eyes. Batman arched his fingers in front of him "The Red Cross Book is an ancient text, thought to be the Holy Book of an obscure sect of Judaism no longer practised. It contains a legend of an ancient evil from a world outside our own that takes the form of the dead and tried to destroy our own before being defeated and driven back to its own world by a powerful Sorcerer"

"Surely it wouldn't contain instructions as to how to bring such an evil into the world?" said Raven.

"It's never been translated properly, it very well could. Could I ask you to do something Miss Roth?"

Raven was taken aback by the fact that Batman seemed to know her real name but after all he was the worlds greatest living detective. "Yes, of course Batman"

"If you do manage to save Robin could you get him to contact me. I haven't spoken to him in some time". Raven couldn't sense peoples emotions over video links but she picked up on a hint of regret in the mans' voice. "Of course." With that Batman shut off the video link. Raven sat in silence for a second, 'So that was Batman,' she thought 'not as bad as Robin made out, bit older than I thought he'd be but he's been around for a lot longer than I've even been alive' she picked up a piece of something Robin had been working on and wondered what it was meant to be. She looked around the room again, her gaze finally fell onto the mask and locked stares with it for a split second. Feeling quite uncomfortable she fled the room.

The warehouse had been cleaned up slightly, the floor was visible again, and Slade watched Havelock directing the efforts of his Sladetroopers from the balcony at the rear of the building. From a shadow behind him Vengeance emerged, fully healed but the Robin uniform was a bit ragged and torn. "The one called Starfire was tougher than you made out, Slade"

"Nevertheless, she should not have proved a problem for you. Has she been incapacitated?" Slade didn't even turn around to ask the question and Vengeance felt a deep hatred rising, a hatred of Slade. It was without reason, Vengeance knew, Slade was responsible for his re-entry into this world _but was also responsible for threatening his friends_. 'Where did that come from?' Vengeance blinked and shook his head he still hadn't got to the bottom of how he had came to be in that alleyway. "She is out of the way for the time being. Which one is next?"

"The one they call Raven" Slade still hadn't turned round which was causing Vengeance to use all of his will power to not turn the man into a puddle of boiling blood. "The other female, why not the mechanical man?" Vengeance asked still trying to get the man to turn round.

"Because Cyborg and Beast boy, despite being friends, will eventually fight each other as their true natures come to the surface. They have no leader and their cheerleader is in a hospital bed, Raven is their intellectual with the other two being merely the muscles and the mouth. Neither can function without at least the brain and Raven is that brain, remove her and the other two will be useless" Vengeance nodded his head in agreement but in a corner of his being felt angry about the Titans being referred to like that and he had bared his teeth when Slade had called Starfire a 'cheerleader'. He felt a small pang of guilt for inflicting pain upon someone so beautiful. '_Wait_,' his thoughts shouted '_I am a three hundred thousand year old Demon from the slopes of Hell. I do not get guilty about destroying anyone, and I especially do not find naive mortal females beautiful. The sooner I destroy this world and get back to my own the better_'. He stared at the back of Slade's masked head, "As you wish" he stepped back into the shadow he had walked out of, and was gone.

The Titans gathered in one of the spare meeting rooms they had in the tower, a dull little room with only one window that let in a dirty kind of light. Raven sat at the head of the table, Starfire to her left, Beast Boy on her right with Cyborg directly opposite her. Beast Boy was agitated, he kept glancing at Raven and jiggling his leg under the table. Cyborg sat quietly and was staring at the table while Starfire kept smiling brightly at everyone despite her bruised face. Raven spoke first "It's been a rough couple of days hasn't it?"

"You can say that again" spat Beast Boy. Cyborg shot Raven a glance,

"Friends," said Starfire "we must take heart in one good fact that we have learned"

"What's that?" said Beast Boy "the fact that out home is nearly totalled, the fact that you got the crap beat out you by some Demon in Robin's body, or could it be the fact that we are no nearer stopping Slade from destroying us"

"Gar, calm down" Cyborg put his hand on his friend's shoulder, Beast Boy swatted him off

"Maybe I don't wanna calm down, maybe you should get mad about all this, Vic, ever think about that"

"Getting angry isn't going to help us get Robin back" said Starfire as she looked at Beast Boy sternly "that is the good fact that we now know, there is a possibility of saving him".

"How do we know it was even Robin you saw and not some trick by Vengeance, or what ever it calls itself. It wants to destroy us, Star' and when it's through with us the city will be next maybe the whole world" Beast Boy was near shouting as he kicked his chair back and slammed both fists against the table. "Beast Boy," said Raven "Starfire is right, we have to stay in control of our feelings especially any leaning towards angry or violent feelings"

"That's rich coming from you girl!" said Cyborg as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Yeah," sneered Beast Boy "Cy' told me about the coffee house and how you turned Jinx into a damn statue, and don't think no one hasn't noticed your new look, were we meant to think you'd started wearing contacts?"

"I was the only one who got anything solid out of the investigation you just mutilated someone half your size" Raven was standing as well now and was toe to toe with Beast Boy

"Only by sucking out someone's brains, you call that investigation" Beast Boy and Raven were staring at each other with a barely contained hatred in their eyes. Cyborg could see they were getting under each others skin about their recent actions which neither of them were pleased about. Starfire raised her hands "Friends, we must cease this fighting and let Raven share what she knows. We must listen to her if we are to have any chance of saving Robin" Beast Boy and Raven scowled at her as she smiled an uncomfortable smile at them. They slowly sat down, Raven took a deep breath and Beast Boy stared at the centre of the table. After what felt to Cyborg and Starfire like an eternity Raven spoke "Robin has been possessed by a demonic entity and is being controlled by Slade. Slade is being assisted by a man called Havelock who is a demonologist from England and responsible for conducting the ritual that turned Robin into this Vengeance creature. After speaking to Batman I-"

"Whoa," Cyborg leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table as the other two looked at her goggle eyed "you spoke to Batman? The Dark Knight?, the Caped Crusader? the man who trained Robin and is perhaps one of the most feared Superheroes of them all. That Batman?"

"Yes, that one. May I continue?" Raven watched her team mates nod silently. "I was able to determine that an ancient text called The Red Cross Book was used to resurrect Robin and may be the key to returning him to us"

"How did Slade get his hands on this book?' Beast Boy asked

"It was stolen from Gotham City museum about a week ago by Jinx on Slade's orders" Raven responded coolly. "How did Slade know what book to look for?' Starfire had her serious face on.

"Havelock. Slade met him whilst he was being nursed back to health by the HIVE after Terra nearly destroyed him" Raven noticed a glimmer of emotion in Beast Boy's eyes at the mention of that name.

"Do we know anything about this Vengeance creature? does it have any weak points? could it be susceptible to psychic attacks? should we call the Justice League?" said Cyborg.

"I would hold off calling the League for now and as for weak points I have no idea. Physical attacks seem to have some effect but not much and we only risk damaging Robin in the process"

"Where do we go from here?" asked Starfire.

"We find this Havelock, he should lead us right to Slade". Cyborg stood up and made his way towards the door, "Lets get started then, I'll hit the computer and see what turns up". Starfire followed him leaving only Raven and Beast Boy alone in the room. She glanced up at him, he was looking right at her and looked like he wanted to say something. "Raven I-"

"Don't bother Beast Boy," she smiled weakly at him "I'm sorry too. We've been stressed out and done things we wish we hadn't. It's okay, we'll get through this". Beast Boy stared at her open mouthed,

"That's what I was going to say, word for word". Raven gave a small laugh which came out as a quiet giggle, much to her surprise. "Well I can read minds can't I" she got up and walked past Beast Boy and as she did put a small pale hand on his shoulder "and no one has ever thought I had a nice laugh before, thanks B.B." Beast Boy stood up and opened his mouth as she walked out of the room but Raven spoke first "Mind reader, remember!"

Havelock slammed shut the door to his small apartment and slid the seven bolts shut. he checked that all the windows were locked and that his nine millimetre pistol was loaded and on the coffee table within easy reach of his chair, not that it would be much use. He sat down and closed his eyes as he breathed deeply. Panicky thoughts were sleeting through his brain concerning how much of the plan Jinx had actually known, how much had Slade told her about what they had actually done. He thought about Raven, how she had absorbed the knowledge right out of Jinx and left her a vegetable, he had also received reports from the HIVE that Gizmo was in police custody minus a hand thanks to Beast Boy. The last thing he needed was for the Titans to be out of control and after him. He turned on the TV in an effort to relax himself but instead of the late night talk show that should have been on he was met with the glowering face of Vengeance. "Why is there a source of power in this dimension linked to Trigon?" he roared from the TV. Havelock's chair fell over as he scrambled to his feet. "Ah," he said licking his lips nervously "It has been suspected, by those in my field, that-"

"Out with it Maggot!" Vengeance snapped.

"The Teen Titan, Raven, may be the daughter of Trigon, we have never been sure" Havelock waited for the searing heat of being turned into a puddle of lava. He looked up at the screen to Vengeance looking absolutely livid. "Should I not have been told that this was possible? if even a fraction of Trigon's power is inside her then she could be a serious threat. I have already felt a great source of power in the city, it nearly absorbed my own. How can I defeat her?"

"I have been able to surmise that the power of Trigon, if it does indeed live within her, can only be released by anger and a complete loss of control by Raven. A few days ago I was able to call it out but that was before you were returned to this world."

"We won't be doing that again, Wizard will we?"

"Of course not. What is going to happen to me if the Titans find out about me?". Havelock asked nervously.

"I expect you'll find out soon won't you?"

"Pardon?" On the screen Vengeance grinned

"Bye" the screen blinked off. Havelock looked round at his door as he heard a shuffling noise behind it, he backed away towards the windows. A bright blue beam blasted the door aside and amidst the dust he saw a huge figure stride through the doorway. It seemed to be made of blue lights and polished reflections with one infernally red eye blazing away as its head swept the room. He looked to his right and saw a green mouse crawl from a hole in his skirting which then morphed into a six foot green and black striped Velociraptor, its two yellow eyes bored into him as it hit growled and clicked at him. Above him a great black bird dropped out of the ceiling, the wings flowed into a billowing cape and its beaked head became the cloaked face of a slim young girl with blazing all white eyes. A few flakes of mortar landed on his shoulder as he became aware of the sound of stone on stone grinding away, he turned to see the wall of his apartment ripped open like a sardine can by a girl no older than about eighteen who was roaring angrily and staring at him with glowing emerald green eyes. The Titans had found him.

Starfire landed lightly on the carpet and walked over to where Cyborg was holding Havelock about a foot of the ground by his shirt. Her eyes were still filled with intense green light as she looked at Havelock, "Where is Robin?" she asked.

"I don't know who you're talking about" he squeaked. Cyborg pulled him closer to his face,

"He's about five-eight, spiky hair, bright stupid lookin' clothes, and, oh, you helped kill him. Ring any bells?" Cyborg's human eye was nearly as cold as his mechanical one and he was grinding his teeth. Looking at him Raven thought he'd taken Beast Boy's advice about getting angry. "Ah, Robin," said Havelock "yes. I'm afraid there is no way of returning him to you, he required a fresh corpse for successful completion of the ritual". Raven looked at him or more specifically into him, she dived through the layers of his mind as if they were nothing but fog as she searched for the truth. Starfire turned to Raven "Are you finding anything?"

"Nothing yet," Raven had a strained expression on her face "I can only tell that he is hiding something from me"

"You'll find the HIVE instils excellent mental discipline in all of it's agents," Havelock smirked "you will never find what you are looking for".

"I rather doubt that" Raven raised one eyebrow in concentration causing Havelock's eyes to roll back in his head.

Deeper and deeper she plunged into the mans' mind in her search, he did have some tricky mental barriers but they were nothing to her. She cut through another barrier with ease, too easy she thought, but kept going anyway.

She snapped her eyes open and looked at the man, his nose was bleeding slightly, "What is a Soul-Echo?" she asked. Behind her Beast Boy transformed back to his regular human form "A what?"

"A Soul-Echo," Raven repeated "what is it?". Starfire turned to Havelock,

"Is Robin still alive in there, in his body?"

"Yes," whispered Havelock weakly "and at the same time no"

"I do not understand?" Starfire looked at Raven.

"Cyborg," she said "put him down" Raven wrapped her cloak around herself "explain?'. Havelock sat back in his chair "A Soul-Echo is a reflection of the soul of a possessed body. It's nothing more than a ghost and no more than a faint copy of whoever the person was, it cannot be used to bring back Robin". Starfire looked dejected, she wandered off into the apartments small kitchen. Raven scowled at him

"You're lying, I can tell and I am going to find out why". Havelock sat panicking,

"How?, don't do to me what you did to Jinx, I was only doing it for the money, Slade said he could pay a fortune, he was desperate to get rid of you," he was near tears and a steaming puddle was growing around his feet. "Oh man, that's nasty!" said Cyborg as he took a few steps back.

"Dude, have you no control?" Beast boy jumped up onto the sofa as Raven floated up into mid air frowning. Havelock met gazes with her as the world went white.

Darkness surrounded him, there was no light at all. He ran on for what seemed like forever until his lungs burned and his legs gave in and in a crumpled, panting heap, Havelock stopped. "You can't run if there's nowhere to go, can you?" looking up he saw Raven standing a few metres in front of him her blood red eyes were all that was visible beneath her hood apart from a mirthless grin. "Where am I?" he asked her.

"Oh, nowhere really. You would call it the space between dreams and reality, each lies at the end of each other in a big cosmic donut" Raven walked around Havelock in a circle as she spoke.

"What do you want?" he was still in a heap on what he assumed was the floor despite there being nothing all around him to indicate what was what. "I want to know how you brought this Vengeance into this world and how I can send it back to where it came from"

"And if I don't tell you?". Raven grinned evilly,

"Then I'll leave you here. Jinx is out there somewhere," she pointed her thumb over her shoulder "you might find her before your body dies in the real world or you go mad from isolation". Havelock looked at her, his eyes pleading with her "You wouldn't?"

"Try me. You used me like a toy back in the Capitol building and it pissed me off," Raven bore down on him as a black band of power crackled round his throat pulling him into the air "I nearly attacked my friends, which I am not amused by, and you have assisted Slade in the murder and corruption of my teams' leader"

"Who would think that Raven, Daughter of Trigon could be so devoted to a mortal boy" Havelock grinned.

"Oh please, Robin maintains the stability of the group. As the only one who could be normal and chooses not to be he keeps us normal. With our abilities anyone of us could become as evil as Slade or worse but Robin teaches us that when we break down it's over." said Raven as she dropped Havelock back to the ground. "Tell me what I want to know, or here you stay".

"Slade has the book, it's all in there. But your friend can't be resurrected, not unless something powerful can bring him back".

Raven smirked "I think we have that covered"

In a similar darkness Tim Drake sat all alone, there was no one to talk to him and there was nothing much to see. He had given up in thinking that this was death, the few minutes he had seen Starfire had ended that thought. It flashed in his memory once more, the fires, her injuries, the searing pain as the starbolts hit him he remembered it all. He had no clue where he was but he peered out into the distance or the infinite, whatever it was he was seeing hoping to see something.

Nothing, there was never anything here. He looked down at what he was wearing, the obnoxiously bright Robin suit and shook his head. If he ever got back to Starfire then Robin was dead, he would only be Tim Drake, Boy Normal.

"Why? can't you be both?" he jumped to his feet as he heard a voice, his own. Okay, was he talking to himself? No he had definitely heard something. He turned to see himself or something that looked like him. It was a bit taller than he was, the voice a little different but there was definitely the bright Robin suit and the black spiky hair. It was just that the face was vague and seemed to comprise of no distinguishing features, the nose and mouth were there and there were surely eyes behind the black domino mask but only white circles were visible. "Who are you?" asked Tim.

"I'm Robin, or rather the persona or idea of Robin that exists in your mind and the minds of others" it said.

"What?" Tim looked confused.

"You, like a lot of superheroes, live a double life. By day you are mild mannered teenager Tim Drake, but by night you are Robin, fearless crime-fighter, partner of Batman and leader of the Teen Titans. You split your thoughts in two as well, one set of thoughts belongs to Tim Drake but you also have thoughts that specifically are Robins' as well. I am the half of those thoughts that is Robin".

"So you're me?"

"No I'm Robin, you are Tim" Robin walked about a bit looking at Tim "You know we're in this mess because of you?"

"How is this my fault? we're the same person" Tim shouted at Robin who smirked.

"You wouldn't let Star' know you! You wouldn't let Star see you! You ran off and went after Slade alone and now you've gotten us stuck here" Robin turned his back on Tim and stared out into the empty space around them. "Why didn't you let her see you?"

"Star' sees me every day, how can she not see me" Tim asked as his confusion only grew. Robin turned back to face him tapping his mask, "No, she sees me. Tim Drake doesn't wear a mask, Robin does. Did you ever think that maybe Star wants to know who you really are? We are the only one of the Titans that has this double life, the rest are just themselves, Beast Boy is Beast Boy from the second he wakes up to the second he goes to sleep, so is Raven, Cyborg and of course Starfire."

"But Starfire wants Robin, I am not Robin" Tim sat back down on the floor "I'm just Tim Drake"

"Robin can't exist without Tim Drake. You used to think we were one and the same before the Joker" Robin looked down at Tim as he shivered.

"_**You lose Batman. Robin is mine, the last sound you here will be our laughter!**"_

"It wasn't your fault, it was no ones fault. You were tortured and drugged, it would have broken anyone"

"_He_ wouldn't have broken," Tim growled "_He_ would have gotten free, beaten the Joker and Harley and escaped. Remember he forbade me from being you, said he wouldn't risk another partner, after that I became just Tim Drake"

"But you went back to Jump City after that, you became Robin again, became me again, became better than ever" said Robin.

"But I'll never be as good as he is, as much as I try I'll never be as good as Bruce, as Batman" Tim held his head in his hands. Robin put his gloved hand on Tim's shoulder,

"You are not Batman, you are not Bruce Wayne. You are Tim Drake, you are Robin. You spoke to the shrink about the Joker, why not talk to Star about it. She'll understand, trust me" Robin faded away leaving Tim alone. Tim stared into the distance again, after a minute he noticed there was something in his hand. It was a black mask with two white, soulless eyes. Without thinking he placed it against his face over his own eyes.

Robin stood up, there would be a way out of here somewhere and if there wasn't then he was betting the Titans would be looking to make him one. He set out into the empty void around him with one thought ringing through his mind, the answer to a question he had asked himself not too long ago "_**I am Robin!**"_

_to be continued..._

what could possibly bring Robin back from the void? why haven't I solved the mystery of raven's new look? will Starfire do anything useful? is this story going anywhere?

you have to wait for;

**Episode IV; Death & Rebirth**

A/N; It's finally finished, yippee (fireworks go off, dancing girls are released carrying big, big glasses of cocktails, etc, etc). This story nearly got abandoned owing to stress from work and too much time playing GTA san andreas on ps2. A few things to talk about; I haven't thanked those who have reviewed this storyhxg, memorysofawhiterose, sheraven, terrafan, an to kill a raven.I thank you all for not tearing me to pieces as this is the first piece of writing I have produced that anyone apart from me has seen. Yes this episode seems a bit slow but there was a lot to fill in. We just had to hear from Batman, we had to see the fight between Star' and Vengeance, Havelock had to be tracked down, Starfire had to get off her Butt and do something at long last. plus I hinted at a little BB x Raven that I may develop in a later story, it depends if I want to cure Terra or not, I am undecided. Yes, the story is a whole lot centred on Raven but she's the emerging new leader coz she's the smartest after Robin. As for the boy wonder himself, you guessed it, I've made him a jabbering crazy man obsessed with perfection and really screwed up. For those that don't know I have referenced Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker in this story when Robin is talking about being "tortured and drugged". As for the boy wonders identity itself, yes I know that in the cartoon series Robin is Dick Grayson, we know this from the episode Fractured and How Long Is Forever? it is also apparent from the robin uniform itself that this is the Dick Grayson, Robin. Tim Drakes was nearly all red and black, at least it was in the animated series of Batman. I am using Tim Drake because he is the robin I am more used to than Dick Grayson. plus I think he's cooler and is presently Robin in the comics of both Batman and Teen Titans, well at least the ones I have read. Yes the last part is a head trip but I liked it, I'm into Evangelion so all this mind trip stuff is what I love. hope y'all like it. I'll try to have IV up before the festivities but don't count on it.see ya'


	4. Death & Rebirth part I

**Teen titans**

**Robin reborn**

**Episode Iv: Death & Rebirth**

**part I; Raven**

**by Secondchild02**

Disclaimer: No, I still don't own Teen Titans, if I did it would be a lot cooler and involve robot ninja apes.

In the dim glow of a bank of computer monitors Slade watched the world through a hundred hidden eyes. Dozens of windows showed news channels from all over the city carrying questioning headlines about the Titans. 'Where is Robin?' was a popular one, the Boy Wonder had been absent from the city for almost a week and people were curious. Others showed Titans Tower with its top level devastated by a mysterious incident and some channels claimed to have footage of some kind of explosion in the early hours of yesterday morning originating in the tower. There were wild eyed eyewitnesses claiming that Raven, never the more popular of the group, had torn up a downtown coffee house in an assault on one of its customers injuring dozens in her rampage. There were odd reports of Beast Boy, regarded as the most light hearted of the Titans, mauling a known criminal and then leaving him in the street bleeding to death. Only Starfire and Cyborg had escaped the wrath of the press so far, but for how long? Daytime talk shows were filled with debate as to whether the city needed them and reports as to how much damage they had caused as opposed to good they had done.

Behind the anonymity of his mask Slade permitted himself a satisfied smile. Everything was happening according to his design, if he couldn't destroy the Titans physically then he would ensure that the publics faith in them was completely destroyed. His mind turned to Vengeance, his most recent tool to destroy his enemies. It believed it could destroy the Titans on its' own, Slade mocked such thinking, if it was one thing he had learned about the Teen Titans it was to never underestimate them. Countless times he had them in his gauntleted grasp only to have them slip through his fingers like trying to catch smoke. Vengeance would fail and the Titans would be all his.

Raven stood on the roof of Titans Tower waiting for Starfire to show up, below her she could hear the sounds of construction as Cyborg and Beast Boy repaired the main living area. She had few minutes to wait as Starfire wasn't back from Starlabs yet where she was having her injuries looked over and the staff were eager to study her alien physiology. Raven suspected it was so the pervert lab technicians could see Star' in her underwear, the very reason Raven refused to set foot in the building anymore as her psychic abilities had lead to a few slapped faces last time she went for a check up.

She looked out over the city unconsciously watching a plane circling for its landing at the JCX airport and found her thoughts wandering. How were they going to defeat Vengeance, how were they possibly going to restore Robin? and how would the team take it if they couldn't? What else did they all have, she didn't have anything. She didn't go to school, she didn't have any skills that could be employed in the normal world, she didn't even have any friends that weren't in the Teen Titans. What sort of job could she possibly be suited for? She mentally pictured herself at thirty, still chasing after small time punks through dark city streets and across roof tops and shuddered. What ever the outcome of this situation they were all in it was time to start planning ahead.

A purple dot in the distance became Starfire who landed almost silently a few meters from Raven "Friend Raven" asked Starfire "you required conversation with me?" Starfire's eyes were bright and filled with earnest curiosity. "Starfire, I need to ask you about Robin, how do you feel about him, truly?" Raven watched Starfire for a few seconds as she stared at her booted feet. Starfire raised her head again "I think Robin is the best person I have ever encountered, both here on Earth and on Tamerran. He is strong and brave and cares more for others than for himself, sometimes to the risk of his own safety. He is a hero, not just to the world but to me as well and I love him completely"

Raven was felt like she was about to retch. She was a complete stranger to any affairs of the heart often stating that she had no time for such frivolities, and that the Titans work for the city was too important to risk clouding with unnecessary emotional involvements. She also appreciated that this was not everybody's point of view on the subject and listening to Starfire talking about Robin and of love with her voice wavering with conviction and such raw emotion was making her feel uncomfortable.

Raven looked at Starfire, the slightly taller girl seemed like she was wilting slightly from the emotional outpouring. "What would you say if I think we may be able to bring Robin back, today" said Raven all the while looking straight at Starfire. "What do you mean, Raven? How could this be done?" Starfire's eyes were full of blind hope and a terrified hunger for what Raven was saying to be true. "I think Robin was able to resurface owing to his romantic interest in you and your close proximity to him at the time. A time at which I have worked out I was in the coffee house with Jinx" said Raven "At that time I was angry, about Robin, about Jinx taunting me and especially about Slade, you know what happens when I get angry, Star"

Starfire stepped forward and put her hand on her friends shoulder "It is okay Raven, you cannot help it"

"Of course I can help it, K'ory I spend every day meditating and focusing and using whatever technique I can to control my anger" Raven had her eyes tightly closed "I didn't ask for it! I didn't ask to be the daughter of Trigon! but I am and I cannot feel anything that intense or powerful at all. Anger, Rage, Jealousy, Hatred, even being Irritated is enough to make me blow up the TV or melt a cup of coffee or throw Beast Boy across the room"

"Fiend, Raven" Starfire put her other hand on her friends shoulder "no more regrets about your lineage, you are your father's daughter but you are not him. Now tell me of your plan to restore Robin to us". Raven took a breath and continued "When I was in the coffee house, when I was losing my temper with Jinx, I began to draw in all the local magical energy in the city. My anger is a small but powerful force in my soul and needs to absorb as much power as possible when it is released in order for it to keep going" Raven looked at Starfire who seemed to be following the conversation okay but Raven couldn't tell as the girl's eyes were always wide and curious. "Anyway, I think I absorbed enough of Vengeance's power, or distracted him somehow for Robin to resurface and prevent him from destroying you"

"So we defeat Vengeance how? by making you angry?" Starfire looked at her friend curiously

"Precisely, but you need to be there as well in order to reach out to Robin and keep Vengeance off balance long enough for me to free Robin"

"And Cyborg and Beast Boy?" asked Starfire

"They will have their part to play, trust me" said Raven and hoped that when it came down to it they didn't have to.

Cyborg finished wiping down the worktop of the kitchen and stood back beaming "As good as new," he nudged Beast Boy who was standing beside him in a hardhat and comedy sized tool belt "nothing like working with your hands now is there". Beast Boy examined his own heavily bandaged hands "Yeah, but not as the actual tools". Beast Boy had today; burned his hand on a blowtorch, smashed his thumb with a hammer, put a nail through his hand, become glued to the wall, and as a result of a practical joke from Cyborg used sandpaper in the toilet and was now walking a little funny. "Aw come on, you can't still be mad can you?" Cy was grinning from ear to ear. "I think I'm still bleeding" said Beast Boy weakly. Cyborg walked off towards his room chuckling as Beast Boy produced a haemorrhoid ring cushion from a drawer and placed under himself as he sat on the couch making relieved noises. Raven entered the room followed by Starfire who was floating behind her humming a strange melody. Beast Boy wasn't curious what Star was humming as it might turn out to be a Tamerranian song and Star might try and sing it. She probably had a wonderful singing voice in her native language but on Earth, and especially to Beast Boys ears, it sounded like a pig was being killed. "Hey" he waved at them as they approached. Raven took in his cushion, hard hat and belt with a raised eyebrow, "You look ridiculous" she said picking up her book.

"I've been working hard baby, making a home for you little ladies" Beast Boy stood up, wincing, and did what he hoped looked like a put on cowboy walk around the room. Raven looked at him sternly, registering disapproval at being referred to as a "little lady" and looked into his mind seeing what had really happened today. "Yes, if I need anything sanding I'll give you a call" she flashed him a peevish grin and went back to her book. Beast Boy grinned nervously, he was beginning to hate Raven's mind reading. "What is this?" he turned to see Starfire holding his haemorrhoid cushion in one hand and was poking it with the other. "Er, its nothing Starfire, really" he waved his hands nervously motioning for her to put it down and that it was no big thing, really. "Is it some kind of comfort device for the hindquarters?" Star put it down and sat on it, wobbling from side to side in a effort to get comfy. "It is not very effective, what is it for exactly?" she asked and Beast Boy reluctantly whispered in her ear what it was for. Star had a look of embarrassment and confusion on her face "Maybe you could have Raven take a look at it, she can heal a number of injuries". Raven dropped her book "No, I don't think that would be a good idea"

"Why?" Star had that 'am I dumb or am I being mischievous' look on her face

"Just, because" Raven retreated behind her book again. Beast boy groaned and headed for the door,

"I'm going for a cold bath, later" and moseyed off out the door.

"But, Raven why wou-"

"Shut up Star!"

A few hours later, and after explaining to Starfire that she really didn't want to see Beast Boy without his pants on, Raven made her way to her room to meditate before going to bed. She couldn't recall when she had last had a good sleep in the past week and had just grabbed an hour here and there while she had sat in the library searching her books for a way to bring back Robin. Was this what Robin did, he always seemed to be up and about either in his crime-lab working on a case or down in the gym. Behind his mask Raven imagined he must look awful and in need of a good nights sleep.

The Red Cross Book was the key, after the information Batman had given her she was certain. The only trouble was that there was scant information available on the book itself. It had been of particular interest to the Nazi's during world war two and only resurfaced following the war in the private collection of a prominent Nazi officer after it had gone for auction following his death. It had been passed from museum to museum in the decades that followed, never being wholly translated and for the most part forgotten about.

It frustrated her that she could do nothing, They had constantly swept the city for Slade's hideout and had constantly found nothing. Raven was sure she had absorbed the knowledge of its location from Jinx but owing to the HIVE mental training she must have kept it from her. They literally had nothing to do until Vengeance came to destroy them, and Raven hated waiting..

After changing into a plain black tracksuit Raven sat on her bed and cleared her mind. She enjoyed this time, her door closed and mind blank before she entered her meditative state where she could resolve all of the problems of her day. Slowly she lay back on her bed, letting her head sink into the huge pillow she had, which was of course black, and let her mind unravel.

Raven stood on a huge, flat, rocky plane under a permanent night sky where strange, unfamiliar stars twinkled at her. 'Strange' she thought ' I normally need the mirror to get here'. She found herself in her Mindscape, the representation of her psyche, a place she normally needed her meditative mirror to reach. To say was surprised was an understatement, Raven had been trying to get to her Centre, a place where she could step outside her mind and view her thought processes in order to find missing links and view things from a different angle. She should not be here, it was worrying her.

"Raven, hello" a yellow cloaked double of herself faded into view, it spoke with her own voice but had a slightly uptight quality like pretentious history teacher. Raven recognised the figure as Knowledge, the part of herself that was pure intellect, who she was never fond of as yellow didn't suit her and the Harry Potter glasses didn't do her any favours. "Hello, Knowledge," she replied "what am I doing here? I was trying to get to the Centre"

"You are here because I called you, I need to tell you something, something you have not had the time to work out for yourself" Knowledge adjusted her glasses in an annoying way, Raven noticed she had brown leather patches on her bodysuit at the elbows. "What is it?" Raven asked.

"I suppose you cannot help but wonder as to the recent change in coloration of your eyes?" Raven looked at knowledge curiously "It has baffled me as well until I stumbled across this" Knowledge reached into her cloak and pulled out a small iron cage that contained a tiny figure made of fire. "What is that?" Raven looked at the tiny figure as it threw itself against the bars and screamed in a small high pitched voice. "This is a fragment of a Demonic Soul, it became absorbed by you when you attacked Jinx. When Anger began drawing in all the ambient magical energy in the city, as you well know, this came in as well"

"And this is causing my eyes to change colour?"

"Yes, unlike Anger which is only half demonic this is fully demonic. It cannot harm you as it is only a tiny fragment of the original. The alteration to your eye colour is minor but I thought you would have figured it out by now"? Knowledge began fussing with her cloak and put the tiny cage back.

"Are you sure it's really safe to have that inside me?" Raven raised her eyebrow at knowledge "It is evil after all"

"It really poses no threat and I do believe it is providing a small amount of amplification to your powers as well" said Knowledge. They looked at one another for a second or two,

"Vengeance," said Raven eventually "it has to be a part of Vengeance, it's how he was unbalanced long enough for Robin to prevent him from killing Starfire, I absorbed a tiny part of his power"

"Well done" said Knowledge "I think it's time to get up now"

"Huh?"

Starfire sat at the console, her elbows resting on the keyboard with her hands on her cheeks and her eyes closed droopily. She was asleep. Raven finished her tea and set it down on the main table, it was her time to keep watch. In times of emergency one of the Titans was required to stay on duty at the main computer in order to assess and process the information the tower constantly received from the JCPD and other law enforcement agencies. She didn't feel mad at Starfire for falling asleep, they had all done it, the poor girl had been through a lot in the past few days. Firstly to deal with Robin's death, then his apparent resurrection and her assault, but now she had to deal with the fact that Robin was alive and was in who knows what kind of trouble. She took off her cloak and wrapped it round Starfire who mumbled something in her own language but remained asleep. Dressed in only her long sleeved body suit she sat on the couch and rubbed her eyes. A plan was forming in her mind, a plan she didn't like but it was necessary in order to defeat Vengeance and it had to be enacted soon. Robin, or at least his body, was in the control of Slade and she couldn't be sure how much, if in fact any, information about the Titans he had shared with Slade. Of course it wouldn't be of his own free will but how much of Robin did Vengeance had control of, did he have his memories?

Raven shuddered and tried to bury an image thrown up from the basement of her mind. In the beginning, when the Titans had first formed, there were only the four of them. It would be another couple of months before Starfire came to Earth and the team was starting to find its own political structure. Robin was the leader of course, he had the most crime fighting experience, and although Cyborg was apparently Robin's number two he had often gone to Raven for advice and for her to act as a sounding board for his ideas as to which direction to take the team in. It had been during a brief campaign of terror by Two-Face in Jump City that Robin had come to her room that night.

He was exhausted, no-one knew when he had last slept let alone eaten and was at a dead end in the case. When she answered the door she was sure she smelled alcohol on his breath, Robin had placed a ban on any alcohol in the tower but everyone had their own stash. Besides, from their talks Raven had deduced that Robin had a lot of demons to run from and she was glad he was using only alcohol to block them out.

He had been wearing a pair of black shorts (a/n as in outdoor shorts, not his boxers) and a red t-shirt with his usual mask of course. He half stumbled half fell through the door to her room and sat on her bed. she realised only after he was inside that she was only wearing a violet t-shirt that stopped short of being too revealing.

"Robin," she had asked "are you okay?"

"Two-Face," he said, slurring slightly "I can't figure out what he's going to do next. I'm going to let the city down, I'm going to let everyone down. I'm going to let you down". Raven sat down next to him. the room was only illuminated by the pale glow of her alarm clock, 03:42, it read. "Robin, who are you more worried about letting down? the city or the team?" she put her hand on his trembling shoulder.

"You forgot about you" Robin looked at her and put his hand on hers.

"Robin," Raven smiled at him and took his hand off of hers "I think you need to go back to your room now, or maybe have some coffee, or better yet a cold shower". He hung his head,

"I'm sorry, I guess I had too much tonight" he said referring to his bottle of rum that both he and Raven knew he had in his room. He turned and smiled at her again, Raven smiled back, 'how often is this going to happen to you Rae? he's not that bad looking!' her mind had screamed at her. "Okay," she said eventually "you can stay here tonight, but you are here to sleep only, everything else is off limits. Understand?" Robin nodded weakly and fell back onto the right hand side of Raven's bed. Raven sighed and went about forming a pillow barricade between her self and Robin.

About a minute later the pillow had been tossed aside and Raven was wrapped in Robin's arms, her head under his chin with their feet making knots with each other. Their breathing eventually fell into the same rhythm and Raven could feel Robin occasionally trying to kiss her neck. Despite pretending, badly, to be asleep Robin wound up lying on top of her but still fully clothed although Raven got an impression of how he was feeling at the time. "Robin," she whispered softly in his ear "we can't. You don't want this, we work together and it would ruin our working dynamic. I'm flattered, and this is nice, but we can't" he nodded slowly and she kissed him once on the cheek. And lying like that they never fell completely asleep as they shifted occasionally to better share each others warmth, Robin would every so often hold Raven a little tighter and Raven, when she thought Robin was almost asleep would run her hand down his back.

The sun rose slowly filling Raven's room with dull light. Waking from a sleep that had eventually came for but a few hours she saw that Robin was gone, and they had never spoken of that night again.

About six months later Starfire had came to Earth and the rest was history. These days Raven thought of Robin only as the groups leader, a thought that had been hard to get used to but now after a few years it wasn't so bad.

Starfire mumbled again and Raven caught the words "Oh Robin" amongst the incoherence and immediately blushed with embarrassment. Robin was Starfire's and not hers, had never been hers and never would be. Sure life was lonely, but she had chosen her life as a Teen Titan and she knew that they were not the first to carry the name. For all it's modern conveniences and technology, Titan's Tower was old, decades old and beneath it lay a place no one liked to talk about, most of all Robin. The Vault.

The Vault held the remains of all previous Teen Titans fallen in battle, the graves of heroes. Quite often members of the Titans didn't have families or homes or anyone who would care about them if they died. It wasn't opened very often, who would want to go down there? but Raven had found out that that Robin went down there once a month.

The Vault was enormous, Titan's Tower would have been swallowed up by it with room to spare. It was a series of circular levels that descended in a corkscrew with a huge drop in the middle. The last time they had been in there was to entrust Terra to its keeping and Raven had taken the opportunity to explore. Wonder-Girl, Kid Flash, they were all here resting forever beneath their home. There was someone else there who Raven didn't expect to see; Robin. A simple plaque on the wall said "Here lies Jason Todd, Robin" And there it was, it was just beneath the surface of every thought that went through the mind behind that mask; fear. Robin wasn't forever, the identity had been laid aside, inherited, and even died in but still the boots had been filled by someone willing. The Robin grave was well tended with the metal plaque polished and the surrounding floor swept of dust. Did Robin feel he owed it to this Jason Todd or did he owe it to Robin, the persona and not the person.

Raven snapped out of her musings and focussed back on the current situation, her shift on watch and the problem of bringing Robin back. Leaving Starfire asleep at the console, her communicator would beep if any news came in, she went to her library. Not as secret as her room and not in the strictest sense hers, the library occupied the entire level just below the main room and had been compiled by various Titans over the years. In truth it may as well as been hers as none of the others ever came in here. Robin never seemed to require it's services as Raven suspected that he used his laptop in his crime lab to link straight to the batcave and it's legendary mainframe. Beast Boy didn't read anything more complex than a comic-book, Starfire had never been seen with a book either, and Cyborg didn't see the point in reading when he could just download whole books into his brain at a time. This had led to the library becoming the sole domain of Raven and it showed. A few mugs with the dregs of cold tea in them lay about the place and here and there a crust of a turkey sandwich kept them company.

Under a dull reading light, this only illumination in the room, Raven opened another volume of occult text, rubbed her eyes and looked out of the expansive windows that lined the wall of the library. Her eyes snapped open and flashed black from edge to edge and the book in front of her fluttered it's pages as if in a gale. He was here.

Vengeance sat on a rock on the shore of Titan island, he was bored, he was starting to dislike this Slade character who kept insisting that he hurry up and destroy the Titans. They didn't mean anything to him but right now they had the annoyingly necessary demonologist, he needed him to explain why he kept feeling like someone was standing behind him. He kept blacking out occasionally and coming to in odd places and it was starting to make him angry. That snivelling human would know why although Vengeance suspected what the cause was. He knew he wasn't the brightest of Demons but being immortal he had developed a long memory and now it was presenting events from thousands of years ago for his inspection. Every Demon knew that in order to be properly channelled into this dimension you had to possess and reanimate a fresh corpse. He remembered it was something to do with the brain and preserving the pathways or something. He was starting to suspect that maybe Slade hadn't killed this Robin at all, this would complicate matters.

However he had to get Havelock out of Titans Tower, and deal with this Raven at the same time.

Beast Boy was sitting in his bath lost in enormous drifts of white bubbles and his own thoughts. Particularly thoughts about Raven. Since their conversation in the conference room she had been on his mind constantly and he was wondering why. Normally she hated him, every time he told a joke he was met with a sarcastic comment. When she became the victim of one of his practical jokes she would chase him round the tower psychically hurling things at him, like bookcases. He found it surprising that he would even be thinking about her at all, especially when he was in the tub.

Of all the Titans, Raven would have to be the one he got on with the least. They were exact opposites; he was loud, crass, a goofball and easily bored while Raven was quiet, polite, overly serious, and seemed quite happy just reading for hours. He tried to talk to her but if he disturbed her it often brought pain.

Lying back amongst the bubbles he caught a grin sneaking onto his face as he thought about his team mate. He sat up sharply sending suds and bath toys everywhere, what was he doing? Robin was captured by Slade and being used like a puppet to do his bidding, Starfire was moping round the tower unable to do anything but cry most of the time, he'd been going slowly nuts and had almost killed Gizmo, Cyborg seemed to be the only one maintaining any sense of normality while Raven was slowly turning into a copy of Robin. She rarely did anything except research and seemed on the verge of losing control most of the time. the face of another person crossed his mind; Terra.

A tear formed in his eye, how could he forget her. She had been the first person he had ever connected with on that level, the first girl who had seen past the green skin and the pointy ears and got to know him. His minds' eye plunged down through the various levels of the tower; the living room, the library, the conference rooms, the gym, Cyborg's workshop, and down even further. It passed through the basement to an enormous pair of steel doors embossed with a huge double T and then past even them into darkness until it rested on what would look to many people like a statue. It was of a young girl, no older than sixteen, she wore a mix of what looked like bandages and armoured plates with a pair of strange devices on her head. Her arms were outstretched to their limit, fingers spread wide with an expression of absolute resolve on her face. A viewer of such a statue would marvel at the detail and proclaim that the artist who created such a work was a genius, you could even see a tear forming in her eye.

But it was no statue, it was what remained of Terra, sealed in the vault with every other toppled Titan. His bath no longer desired but unable to move, Beast Boy sat and stared at the cool tiled wall "What are we going to do?"

Sitting in the dark of the room that had become his prison, Havelock once again tried to open the door. As he griped the handle he cried out in pain and in his mind a vision of enormous terrible birds devouring his entrails flashed in his mind. That little witch had cursed the door, he'd also noticed that around the window and the walls a sticky substance had been painted in the shape of Azarathian runes and his head span when he looked at them. He crawled back to the centre of the room and lay wheezing in a heap. 'Has the Master abandoned me?" he thought feverishly 'surely he has not, I am still worthy of serving him' as he thought this he noticed the painted on runes flashed red and evaporated. He smiled, 'The Master comes for me'

By the time Raven hurried into the main room the rest of the team were all there with Beast Boy smelling strangely of lavender oil. He tried to avoid Raven's curious gaze but was rescued by Cyborg, "The silent alarm was triggered about three minutes ago, it's Robin's access code alright". Raven looked up at the giant monitor screen that was displaying a transparency of the Tower. "Can we locate him?". Cyborg shook his head "Internal sensors can't see him, he's using a psyonic disruption field similar to your own"

"Yeah, you can only find me when I want you to," Raven frowned at the monitor and stepped towards the keyboard "this should let us find out what level he's on". Behind her Beast Boy smirked,

"So now we'll be able to find you when you're hiding from your chores, Raven"

"If you value you're green skinned hide that is" Raven growled in response "He's on level seven, he's after the demonologist"

"We should've seen this coming," wailed Beast Boy "we could've put him the prison but no let's keep him here where there's only four of us and not even any guns"

"Surely we would not wish to harm Robin with a firearm" Starfire asked earnestly.

"It's not Robin, Star," said Cyborg "and we may have to take him down"

"But we cannot harm him, Raven spoke of a plan to save Robin" Starfire turned to Raven "you must save him" she asked imploringly.

"One way or another, Star, it ends tonight" Raven's voice was as level and firm as an iron bar as she drew her hood up "Teen Titans," she said calmly "Go!"

_**To Be Concluded…**_

**Will there be a climactic battle between good and evil? will Slade get his just desserts? Why is this story called "Death & Rebirth"? it sounded really cool!**

**You have to wait for;**

**Death and rebirth**

**Part II; the end of all things**

Authors note; not as good as you thought? Well this is but one part of our stunning feature length conclusion to this tale and the next one will live up too its name. I got a little creative with this one, especially about the tower and what lies beneath it. I added the robin x raven thing coz it's gonna provide the cause of a major conflict in the next part. Why two parts? Well there was so much I need to put in the last episode that it had to be split in two. Well, hope you liked it. Not much action I know but like every good two parter the fur starts to fly in act two, see ya.


	5. Death & Rebrith part II

**Teen titans**

**Robin reborn**

**Episode Iv: Death & Rebirth**

**part II: The end of all things**

**by Secondchild02**

Vengeance strolled through the tower at a leisurely pace, the Titans held no fear for him. He had already seen off the one known as Starfire, from all reports this Cyborg and Beast Boy were absolutely no threat with only Raven, who he had sensed did not know how powerful she was, being the only one who could irritate him. He stopped at a door about halfway down the long corridor and smirked as the last embers of the runes on the door faded from where they had been burning. Azarathian runes had no power over him. He slowly opened the door and peered into the darkness, "I am here, you have some explaining to do!" he grumbled. A blue glow filled his vision accompanied by a voice "You picked the wrong house, fool!". Cyborg hit Vengeance full in the face with a sonic blast sending him across the corridor and bouncing off a wall. "Now you gotta pay the entry fee" Beast Boy yelled as he morphed into a Kodiak bear and slashed Vengeance's side who screamed as blood flowed all over the walls and floor. Starfire emerged from the other end of the corridor and immediately went pale with shock. "Robin!" she screamed and zipped down the corridor towards him where he was slipping all over the place in his own blood. As she landed she said "Robin, please do not die again. Robin, it is you is it not?". Vengeance spun on his heel and kicked Starfire square in the side of the head knocking her out. "Yeah, sure it is" he said before gesturing towards his bleeding side, healing it. "I'm whoever you want me to be" he jerked right and missed another wild slash by Beast Boy before spinning again and punching the huge green bear in the chest. The bear shrank back to Beast Boy's human form who spat a little bit of blood out as he said "That's gonna scar". Vengeance sneered at him and tossed him aside "Where is my demonologist?" he roared at Cyborg who had ducked an airborne Beast Boy and was heading straight for him. Cyborg hit him full in the chest and the two slid the length of the corridor exchanging blows and energy blasts as they went. Starfire came too slowly but quickly began to panic when she felt blood on her hands and face. Opening her eyes she saw that she was undamaged but had landed in the pool of Robin's blood, she felt ill. The sound of scraping metal and the flash of sparks made her look up as Vengeance hurled Cyborg back up the corridor, the red glow from his eyes casting infernal shadows down its length. Striding towards the fallen Beast Boy he picked him up by his shirt in one hand and opened his glazed eyes wide with the other. Beast Boy began to drool and his nose bleed as Vengeance pried his mind open like an oyster looking for the information he sought. "Leave him alone!" commanded Starfire as she launched a series of Starbolts at Vengeance catching him on the back with one. He stumbled as the energy bolt burned through the Robin suit and seared his flesh. "You cannot be Robin, he would never strike his friends, he would never strike me especially" Starfire kept advancing on the stricken Vengeance with Starbolts and eyebeams cut loose in a blinding display of green light and energy. The corridor was filled with dust and debris as Starfire's wild barrage hit more wall and ceiling than her target who was rolling and leaping, almost playfully, down the corridor to the far end. Starfire held her hands together and drew them back to form a massive Starbolt "Robin must truly be dead" she said releasing the Starbolt. It sizzled down the corridor passing harmlessly over Vengeance who hit the ground flat as it passed and melted the elevator doors. He jumped back to his feet and said with a sneer "Are you just catching on, you're dumber than you look!" before back flipping through the glowing door frame and levitating himself up the shaft.

Starfire stood breathing heavily and shaking, her head was throbbing but she had to go on. This was going to end tonight, Raven had said so and Starfire believed her. Beast Boy came to and sat up rubbing his head "Did you get the number of that house that hit me?". Starfire helped him and Cyborg to their feet before snapping open her communicator "Raven, he is heading in your direction, we will join you shortly". Helping her shorter green colleague they made their way to the stairs and to the roof.

With the wind fluttering her cloak around her, Raven waited on the roof. Behind her, Havelock was leaned against an A/C plant deep in a trance Raven had put him in. Her communicator played it's familiar jingle, taking it from her belt and snapping it open she was met with Starfire's voice "_Raven, he is heading in your direction, we will join you shortly_".

'Great,' she thought 'I get stuck with the Big-Bad while they amble to the rescue. perfect'. The air was still and the water around the tower calm which made it all the more unsettling. In a few minutes, possibly seconds, she would have to face an ancient evil that seemed unbeatable. Her plan to rescue Robin from it's control was hinging solely on the one thing in the Universe she could not believe in, love.

Raven was, she knew, the issue of Trigon, her father, raping her mother, Arella. Having been created thusly she found it difficult to believe in such a feeling and doubted it's existence. Yes she had had feelings for Robin in the past but that was a temporary imbalance of her emotional discipline owing to her adjustment of living in this dimension. She wondered why such memories had surfaced now and assigned the cause to stress and exhaustion of leading the Titans in Robin's absence.

The roof hatch being blasted off it's hinges by a neon red energy blast brought her back to reality. Vengeance strode out on to the roof eyes blazing with crimson light and a fiery nimbus around his head. He looked around before his gaze settled on Raven, "Ah, Raven" he said menacingly "we meet at last, and I can see that you have something of mine" he motioned towards the demonologist and with a wave of his hand Havelock rose into the air and began to float towards Vengeance. Raven raised an eyebrow as her eyes flashed white and Havelock froze in mid air. "I think I'll be keeping him if you don't mind" said Raven her voice had a threatening edge. "Impressive," said Vengeance "but it will take more than a party trick to stop me from taking him" he narrowed his eyes and a dull red band of light glowed around Raven's throat contracting slowly. She fell to her knees gasping for breath and Havelock once again began to float towards Vengeance. "Not so powerful after all, are you?" he drew his leg back to kick Raven in the ribs "pity, we could have made a great team". Raven smirked as her eyes flashed white and the red band around her throat flew apart. "I doubt it," she said standing up "but this ends tonight, you got that?"

"If you want to die you only have to ask" he thrust his arm out to launch an energy blast but Raven teleported behind him and high kicked him in the head before back flipping and crouching down in a ready stance as Vengeance stumbled forward dazed. "Didn't know I could do that did you?" said Raven before in a blink being behind him and wrapping her arms round his throat in a choke hold. "That's right" said Vengeance "your much beloved Robin taught you some of his skills, must have been in the early years when you and he were closer". Vengeance smirked as he leaned forward flipping Raven over his head and smacking her onto the hard concrete roof of the tower. He walked towards the recumbent Havelock idly tossing an energy ball over his shoulder as an afterthought. Raven opened her eyes in time and the energy ball turned black and hovered in mid air. Sensing a change in the atmosphere Vengeance stopped and turned round to see the now black energy ball orbiting Raven in big lazy circles before she held out her hand and the ball settled into it and was absorbed slowly into her out stretched hand. "You'll need to do better than that" growled Raven "and Robin and I are still close"

"Yes," he replied "but not as close as he is to the other one. You are his counsel, his sounding board, his real second in command. You may do all the thinking, but Starfire does for him what you wouldn't do. What you can't do" Raven winced as Vengeance flashed a picture in her mind. Sheets and clothes all over the place, hands everywhere, hands and feet grasping and touching and all the while an incessant moaning and gasping filled the air. Sex. Raven wondered how long it would take for Vengeance to get to that part of Robin's mind and also found herself wondering how close Robin and Star had got. She shook her head free of the image and remembered the conversation in Starfire's room, they had only just kissed the night before Robin was captured.

"You're lying, I know the truth and they both never did that, they only even kissed once so you're going to have to do better than that" Raven folded her arms across her chest and stared hard at Vengeance who frowned. "Really, well I know what you want" he said "in your heart of hearts". The image flashed again but this time the soft orange of Star's skin was replaced with a pale grey and the air was filled with giggling. Raven visibly sagged and shut her eyes "Stop it, get out my mind. I don't want that, I couldn't ever have that". Vengeance walked towards her and put his hands on her shoulders

"I know, you possess a power unrivalled by any Demon. You could easily be the most powerful creature in this dimension and all you have to do is let go Raven, let it all go" he lifted her chin up so he was looking into her eyes "anger, hatred, jealousy, even love. You could feel them all if only you could accept who you really are, you could have Robin for your own and I can give him to you". Raven bowed her head and her shoulders started shaking causing Vengeance to roll his eyes and snort; this would be easier than he thought. Only after a few seconds did Vengeance detect that something wasn't right, Raven wasn't crying, she was laughing.

He stumbled back in shock as Raven snapped her head up and in the depths of her hood four red eyes glowed like neon, like electric blood. "I should accept who I really am," she growled "I should let go everything that I keep inside. I am aware that my power is unrivalled in this dimension but only if I let it control me and not me control it. I can sense your power, what little of it you have, and you are no threat to me" Raven slowly grew in size and her cloak spread about her like two enormous wings. Vengeance rallied himself and his eyes glowed like Raven's "Very well," he said "let's end this. But before you die remember that I gave you a chance". Raven nodded and as she did so her eyes flashed white for a second. Behind Vengeance the door he had blown off turned black and contorted into a huge snake of metal that Raven launched at him coiling it round his body. It began contracting but it slowly turned red, then the colour of fresh straw as it began to melt and run. It splashed into puddles around his feet before he jumped at Raven who side stepped but as he landed he swept his leg round taking Raven's out from under her. Raven gasped in surprise but before she hit the ground she blinked black and was gone, reappearing behind Vengeance and swinging her joined hands at his head. She struck him at the base of his skull pitching him forward but into a puddle. Vengeance snarled, filthy water dripping off his chin as he pushed himself up and turned to face Raven. "No more games" he said before in a flash of red teleporting behind Raven and striking her twice in the sides before vanishing again and reappearing at her side bringing his right fist round in a quick arc that smashed like a juggernaut into her face. Raven spat blood and sank to her knees as he continued to vanish and reappear around her raining blow after blow on her. Raven, although possessing some combat skill, wasn't exactly proficient in hand to hand fighting. Robin had taught her a few moves but only enough to keep her alive in a pinch. She tried to open her mouth, to frame her incantation that would release her power upon him. Her vision blurring she opened her mouth "Azarath, Metrion, Zinth-" she whispered before Vengeance crashed his steel toe-capped boot into her chest and with a cry of pain Raven collapsed onto the roof as the air rushed from her lungs. Groping around her with arms flailing like crazy she struggled to catch her breath Raven felt a firm uncaring hand grasp her around her delicate throat and haul her into the air "Pity," a breathless voice rasped in front of her, it was coming from that red light she could see, "what a waste. You half breeds never can accept where the power comes from, you think denial is a cure". The grip tightened and the voice dropped to a whisper "You can't cure what isn't wrong with you!". Raven could feel herself slipping away, her vision was growing darker around the edges and her body felt as light as a feather, this must have been how Robin felt.

'Robin'

'Robin'

'**_Robin_!**'

In the dark a cry echoed from somewhere a long way off. It was barely above a whisper now but it had travelled the length of eternity and had no doubt started off as a cry to tremble mountains and shake the seas. It was just one word.

"**RAVEN!**"

Vengeance smirked as he heard Raven gag and choke as he squeezed her throat, "How fitting," he said "that you should die in the same fashion as your cherished Robin, some would call it poetic" he pulled her closer to his twistedly grinning face "I just call it fun". He grinned even wider as Raven gagged again and tried to speak, this was too much fun. He squeezed tighter still watching Raven's eyes roll back into her head and her legs twitch convulsively as the last vestiges of life were forced out of her. His victory was cut short by a loud shriek as a green monkey hit him in the face with a slap and began to climb around his head slashing at his eyes and ears. Raven hit the ground hard and lay in a puddle taking huge breaths as her lungs and throat burned. The green monkey leaped off of Vengeance's face and morphed into Beast Boy and rolled as he landed before scooping up Raven and dodging with her behind an air conditioning plant. "Now you're just making me mad!" Vengeance roared at the world around him. He looked around him before settling on the A/C plant and stretched his open palm out before him. Slowly Beast Boy rose from behind the machine kicking his legs and flailing his arms about wildly as he spun helplessly in mid air. Vengeance cocked his head before clicking his fingers and Beast Boy dropped at his feet. "What exactly are you?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "I'm an animal changeling," replied Beast Boy shaking with fear and damn near wetting himself "I can become animals". Vengeance stood back,

"Not any more you're not" he said and kicked Beast Boy in the face who rolled back and sprang up ready to morph into a T-rex and end this now.

But nothing happened. He concentrated harder but still nothing, he was stuck in human form. "What the hell did you do to me?" he shouted at Vengeance.

"I could have left you as the monkey, think about it"

"But how-"

"Bye" Vengeance waved a hand at the stricken Beast Boy and he vanished in a red thunderclap. He turned and made his way back towards Havelock who was still unconscious and drooling. "Pathetic" grumbled Vengeance as prepared the incantation that would take himself and Havelock away from the tower. A slow pacing behind him distracted him and he turned to face Cyborg.

The light drizzle of rain that was now falling made his skin shine and his metallic armour slick and his remaining human eye burned almost as brightly as his red artificial one. "What did you do to my friend just there?" he asked in a dark voice.

"I made him one thing and not anything else, if you get my meaning" sneered Vengeance before tossing a red energy blast at Cyborg. The blast bounced harmlessly off Cyborg's titanium chest armour leaving only a black burn mark "Gotta try harder, Slick" said Cyborg and advanced on him bringing his great metal right hand round and catching Vengeance square in the jaw. The comparatively small form of Vengeance was knocked across the roof like a rag doll and bounced off a roof hatch before trying to stand up again but was hindered by Cyborg stamping on his right arm and with a loud snap it went limp. "I got the strength of twenty men just now, Man," Cyborg kicked Vengeance in the side punting him a few meters forward "and that's on half power" He reached down and picked up Vengeance by the head, "I'm sorry Robin, but we just can't save you this time" and slowly began to increase the grip pressure on his head.

Starfire zipped out of the roof hatch after Cyborg and flew low over to Raven who was lying on her side with her eyes closed. "Friend Raven, you must awaken and continue the saving of Robin" she grabbed the other girls shoulder and shook her back to consciousness. "Starfire," Raven mumbled "help me up". Starfire hauled Raven to her feet and leaned her against the air vent they were behind. "Where did Beast Boy go?" Raven sounded almost beaten. "Beast Boy reappeared in the main living area most upset as to his lack of morphabilty, I believe the word he used was" Starfire shouted against the wind that had picked up suddenly as well as the rain. "The weather is being effected by Vengeance," said Raven "he's losing control of his anger and it's grounding in the first place it can". Behind Raven, Starfire saw Cyborg break Robin's arm and then haul him onto his feet by his head. "NO!" she screamed and leaped over the air duct launching a huge Starbolt straight at Cyborg. It hit him in the back and he went down dropping Vengeance. He looked up at Starfire as she tended to the fallen Robin and drifted into unconsciousness with a curse.

Starfire held Robin's broken body tightly against hers and cried. Her boy was injured and had been done so by one of his team mates. "Starfire," croaked Raven as she limped round the side of the vent "let go of him, that isn't Robin"

"Then you must do as you promised and release Robin from the Vengeance's control" Starfire had tears welling up in her eyes. Raven looked at the girl cradling Robin and felt a tiny spark of something in her soul, it should have been her holding Robin, should have been her who loved him. The spark grew into a tiny flame as Starfire kissed Robin's forehead and whispered that it would be alright. Raven held her eyes shut tight as she listened to the hurricane of her own thoughts that screamed that why did Starfire deserve him, she understood him and was the only one of all the Titans who knew that inside Robin was tormented by horrors from his past. She had been the one Robin had come to that night long before he had ever known Starfire. She had been the first and had been replaced by this bubble headed alien who did not deserve someone of Robin's importance.

Starfire looked up at Raven who had her eyes pressed shut and was shaking while a solitary tear rolled down her cheek. "Friend Raven, whatever is the matter?". Raven opened her mouth and let out a terrible shriek revealing row upon row of needle thin teeth and a disgusting purple tongue then she opened her eyes. Her four red eyes.

Starfire just screamed.

He had been running for hours and his legs and lungs were beyond burning and now he felt no pain that could be measured by the body's senses. For a second in the eternal void he was in Tim Drake had heard a familiar voice cry out his name, the name the voice knew him as "Robin!" it had taken him a few seconds but he had figured out which way it had came from and he began to run. He could hear other voices and he quickened his pace plunging on and on through the darkness towards his goal, the voice, Raven. And where Raven was, Starfire would be also. He would not be defeated.

Raven launched herself at Starfire taking the girl down with her and they rolled across the roof top through the puddles. Starfire got free of Raven's grip and stood with eyes blazing and hands charged with Starbolts. "Raven, I do not wish to hurt you, explain why you have attacked me" Starfire walked in a circle as Raven slowly made her way towards her. "Raven, please, I do not understand why you would do this"

"I do" Vengeance had gotten slowly to his feet and flexed his damaged arm, there was a series of stomach turning pops and snaps and the arms reset itself. "Raven is half demon, half human. Her power comes from her demonic half but is never fully realised until she acknowledges it. A few days ago she absorbed part of my power and this has upset the balance of her mind and her nature. Now she is more demon than human and as such is now mine!" Vengeance walked slowly over to Raven and put his hand on her shoulder "We will make such a lovely couple won't we?"

"Never!" Raven gave guttural rasp and knocked Vengeance off his feet with a blast of black energy. "You are going back where you belong!" Raven picked up the startled Vengeance by the front of his shirt and looked deep into his eyes with her four. "Time to take the rest of you!".

"Vengeance screamed as Raven breathed deeply in through her mouth and bright red fire shot out his nose and mouth and into hers. Raven dropped Robin's body and stumbled back clutching at her head before falling to her knees. Her four eyes blazed and she threw her head back and screamed as she was engulfed in a huge column of flame that shot into the heavens and spread out to fill the sky. A huge terrible face leered out of the maelstrom before it dissipated leaving the night sky clear of any clouds with only the stars twinkling at the city.

Very slowly Raven fell forward and lay still.

Starfire walked over to Robin's lifeless body and knelt over him. She brushed his hair out of his eyes and looked at his unmasked face. It was the first time she had ever truly looked at and thought he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Slowly she brought her face down to his and kissed him once on the lips. "Come back Robin, come back to me".

Tim felt himself being dragged forward by some unknown force while all the time a voice spoke to him; it was Starfire. The darkness was replaced by a blinding light as he was dragged on through his memories; his childhood, his parents, his abandonment, his meeting Batman, his training as Robin and his forming of the Teen Titans. The last thing he saw was the rooftop kiss he and Starfire had shared.

Smiling he opened his eyes to see Starfire crying. "What's wrong Star'?" he asked his voice hoarse.

Starfire gasped in surprise and a new wave of tears rolled down her cheeks, "There is nothing wrong Robin," she said "everything is fine. Everything is okay". She leaned in to kiss him again but Robin put his finger to her lips to stop her. He looked into her perfect green eyes and said "My name is Tim, pleased to meet you".

"Hello friend Tim" said Starfire and kissed him.

About an hour later Robin and Raven were lying in beds in the medical bay of the tower. Cyborg was looking at the read out on Raven's life support monitor while Starfire simply sat beside Robin, who was asleep, and held his hand. Beast Boy, happy that with the defeat of Vengeance seemed to have undone whatever it was had frozen him in human form, was morphing into every animal he could think of one after the other. Cyborg turned to look at him to see a bright green Raccoon rolling around on the med-lab floor. "If you don't cut that out I'm gonna lock you in the storage cupboard again" he said. Beast Boy shifted back to his human form and sat on the floor scowling. "So what's wrong with them?" asked Beast Boy.

"Robin, has suffered from tremendous neurological stress, not to mention about a dozen serious physical injuries that were healed magically so he's gonna be fine after a few days rest." said Cyborg flipping through a clipboard of charts he was holding. "Raven is a different story altogether. Her entire system is fried, there's brain activity but she's not conscious. Her nervous system has undergone something I don't think even Starlabs could understand not to mention the physical stress she's been under recently. She's dehydrated, malnourished, and suffered a hell of a beat down recently. She could be in a coma or she could just need a good nights sleep, I just cant tell." Beast Boy looked deeply puzzled, he wasn't any good at the science stuff just yet, "How can't you tell?" he asked. Cyborg turned to look at Raven who looked so out of place in the green hospital gown she had been dressed in. "Raven's genetic make-up is half-human, half-demon. Because of the magical nature of some of her genetic material it can't be scanned properly by our equipment so I have no idea how long she'll be asleep or how bad she's hurt". He ran his metal finger down the side of her face and along her jaw line "But our Raven's a fighter, so she'll be okay".

Starfire let go of Robin's hand and gave a yawn, "Friends," she said "I think it is time we all went to slumber for it has been an extended day and we all look like Gronked Snorlaxes" Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at each other, they had never got to grips with the Tamerranian language but presumed that the last part of what Starfire said hadn't been a good thing. "Good idea, Star'" said Cyborg who picked Beast Boy up by the collar and ushered him out of the room. Starfire left the sleeping forms of Robin and Raven and walked towards the door, turning as she did so before she turned out the light and saying "Goodnight, Tim".

He had waited a few hours before awakening, he was tired and hurting but he had unfinished business tonight. Robin dropped lightly off the hospital bed and stealthily made his way to the area of the garage level that was his. A retina scan and a palm print allowed him access to the room that contained his R-Cycle and the rest of his equipment. He changed into one of his spare Robin Suits he kept here, loaded up his utility belt and fired up the R-Cycle. As he lowered the helmet onto his head he said one word before speeding off into the cool night air. "Slade!"

It was the work of a moment to enter the warehouse, Robin remembered exactly where it was. Every detail of everything Vengeance had made him do was clear in his mind as if it had been etched on to crystal. Dropping in through a skylight he landed on a walkway with barely a noise and negotiated his way along its length like a snake through quicksilver. Softly and silently he approached the door at its end, reaching into his utility belt he produced a small syringe full of oil and injected it into the hinges. The door swung open silently and smoothly and Robin could see a huge leather chair in front of bank of computer monitors. Beside the chair was a familiar brass and black mask with one eye hole staring directly at him. Robin froze before he realised the mask was empty, it was sitting on a low table with its baleful eye socket empty of the cold and calculating intelligence Robin was accustomed to being scrutinised with. The figure in the chair leaned forward slightly and Robin saw a head with scruffy black hair and a scarred neck and an ear that was only half there. If this was Slade then he looked pretty grim beneath that featureless mask of his, maybe the mask was an improvement. After all, Terra's lava bath wouldn't have done him any favours. Robin stopped creeping up on his nemesis and stood firm and tall, "I'm here Slade" he said "let's end this". Slade reached out with a grey gauntleted hand and picked up the mask on the table beside him that was now visible as a full helmet, hinged on the top and fastening at the sides. The hand vanished behind the chair and Robin heard a clicking that must have been the terrible helmet being fastened over Slade's ruined face.

The chair spun to face him and there was Slade regarding him with that frozen blue eye of his. "Hello, Robin" drawled Slade "we should stop meeting this way, there could be talk" Slade's voice was as always measured and devoid of anything that could be termed as humour. "You used me to try and destroy my friends and the city," Robin's voice was as level and measured as Slade's "you've gotten away with everything you've done time and time again because as you've said I can't kill you. Well you're right, I can't kill you, but now my team mates aren't here there's nothing to stop me from taking you down and taking you in how I should have done years ago". Slade stood up out his seat, he was easily a foot taller than Robin and about as powerfully built as Cyborg . He looked down at the slight youth "Determined, ruthless, capable and willing to do what it takes to achieve your goal," the man said in his almost hypnotic voice "now you see why you were the perfect apprentice, Robin. You are my equal and opposite and alone worthy of a place at my side. You still could you know". Robin met the mono-optic gaze of the taller man,

"I'll never join you, Slade". Slade's spine stiffened and he flexed his neck working out all the tension,

"Very well," he said taking up a combat stance "one shall stand, one shall fall. Let this be the end of all things between us". Robin followed suit and back flipped into a ready stance,

"Let's do this" he said and leapt forward with a roar.

Sneaking down the staircase from her room Starfire dodged from shadow to shadow down the corridor to the medical bay. She just had to see him again. Her mind was over saturated with joy and relief at having him back that she didn't care if he was unconscious but just longed to be near him. As she drew nearer the soft rhythm of the machines that monitored him grew louder, she bit her bottom lip nervously as she stepped round the door as she didn't fully open it and was inside.

But where was he.

The bed she had seen him in but a few hours ago was empty with all the sensors attached to him now attached to the sleeping form of Raven. Starfire looked at the pale girl, she had attacked her on the roof and Starfire still wondered why. It was true that Raven had been under tremendous pressure lately and had had several things that Starfire did not understand happen to her, but why would Raven wish to harm her? This she was sure would be answered in time. But where was Robin and why had he sneaked out of the tower?

Descending in the elevator to the garage level she strode through it's cavernous expanse passing all the titans vehicles, even Beast Boy's long sought after moped that he was struggling for Cyborg to accept as the T-Scooter. Her journey led her to Robin's area, dull metal door with a palm scanner and retina reader that was uncharacteristically ajar. Inside the normally clinical environment of Robin's workshop and store for his bike was a mess. Tools and parts were everywhere and scattered amongst them were scraps of the ruined Robin suit he had been wearing. His closet of spare suits was open and the contents emptied in a heap in front of it. A spare suit seemed to be gone and Starfire realised which suit was missing. Robin had been working on it for some time and had let Starfire see it only once. Unlike his regular suit this one was not just a costume. It had been a by product of his creation of Red X and used a lot of the technology in the X-suit. Robin had eventually put the suit away as once he was done he found that it was too similar to the Red X suit and would never risk starting down that dark path again.

Starfire looked around the room and wondered what he intended to do with such a suit. But it was obvious, he had gone to get Slade. She flipped open her communicator and franticly searched for Robin's signal. She had to find him before it was too late.

Slade dodged as Robin leapt at him then spun round sharply, lashing out with his fist. Robin side stepped and brought his foot round in a hi kick that connected with the man's head then delivered a sharp uppercut knocking Slade on his back. With a subtle hand gesture a Baterang slid out Robins glove and unfolded, it's razor edge glinting in the dark. Slade rolled to the left as the red and yellow weapon slashed down through the air and stuck in the wood floor. Robin snarled something and threw another that just caught the side of Slade's leg. He heard the man grunt in pain and grinned.

Slade jumped to his feet and brought out his extendable Bo staff "I'm impressed Robin," and it was evident in his voice "your skills are improving as well as your ability to focus your temper into a fight"

"This is just the warm up Slade" Robin smirked and pressed the round yellow catch in the centre of his utility belt. In a split second Robin flickered and vanished,. Slade's eye widened in shock as he circled the room nervously jumping at every creak of the old floorboards. Robin flickered back in to view behind him and punched Slade hard in the kidneys and kicked him in the back of his knee. The man dropped to one knee as Robin flickered out of sight then back into view in front of him before he punched him hard in the face and was gone again.

Slade stood up again rubbing his jaw. "Now this is interesting," he said "if I'm not mistaken Robin, I've seen that little trick before" Slade walked out of the small room and out to the staircase and walkway outside the office. "I think you've been playing with toys you shouldn't be Robin, or should I call you 'X'?"

Slade scanned the dark warehouse for any sign if his opponent. "You do remember the last time you used a suit like that to try and catch me? You figured out that you couldn't get near to me as Robin, the boy wonder, and would only be able to find me if you entered my world".

"Red X was a mistake," came Robin's voice from the darkness "it was also a failure as you still escaped"

"Yes, but I saw through your little deception straight away and simply played along with it to see how far you'd be willing to go" Slade stalked down the walkway tapping his staff on the metal railing. "It made me realise something Robin, that you can't beat me without becoming me"

"I'll never be anything like you, you're a terrorist and a murderer, Slade," roared Robin as he flickered back into view swinging his Bo staff round to meet Slade's with a resounding clang "you delight in destroying lives and only accept those that will submit to your ideals" the staffs clanged again as Slade went for Robin's legs but was blocked and Robin parried to be met with Slade's as the two staffs locked again. "Is that not what part of leading a team is as well Robin," said Slade coolly "only having time for those ideas that fit your design, taking delight in foiling the best laid plans of your enemies. As I said Robin, equal and opposite" Slade broke the lock of the two staffs and cracked his off Robin's chin sending the youth stumbling backwards before swing the staff round sharply into the side of Robin's head. Robin was nearly knocked over the railing and spat blood out onto the ground that was a long drop away.

Slade was relentless and brought his knee up into Robin's gut and shoved him over. Robin franticly crawled backwards to find a safe point to gain an advantage. Slade stalked slowly up the walkway and brought his foot down hard onto Robin's utility belt shattering the central clasp and the cloaking module. "No more vanishing act Robin, you're staying right where I can see you" Slade watched Robin squirm beneath his foot "pity you threw you're life away so easily". Robin gritted his teeth and from a secret compartment in his glove tossed out a flash bomb. The lenses in his new mask flashed black as they adjusted to the new light level for a split second and with his other hand he threw one of his razor edged Baterangs. It made a silken sound as it flew through the air before slicing along the side of Slade's neck, the man screamed as it did so but it turned into a burbling cry as he fell to his knees, hand pressed to the wound fontaining blood. Robin stood up and began to rain blows upon Slade knocking him along the walkway as he grasped at the railing with his free hand. Eventually Robin stopped, exhausted with his fists in agony and watched as his nemesis struggled to keep in his life blood and draw breath. "I would have waited an eternity for this," croaked Robin, his throat dry "it's over Slade!". Slade looked at him with the panic in his eyes suddenly gone and spoke in a hellish whisper that bubbled and hissed with menace "It's never over" from his own belt he dropped a small silver sphere with a digital display on it and a green line round its equator. Robin recognised it immediately as a Kryptonite bomb and leaped over the edge of the railing as he heard Slade's laughter behind him. He ran for the door to the building as it rang in his ears.

High above the city Starfire saw the bright green explosion and a few yards from the devastated warehouse found Robin unconscious.

About a month passed, neither Slade or his body were ever found and the Titans were unable to draw any conclusion as to if he was still alive or not. Robin was the last to stop looking after Starfire insisted that no good would come of more obsession with Slade and that what he had said might be true; that Robin could not defeat him without becoming him. Raven woke up after about a week and after the obligatory conversations about her condition and what had happened immediately retreated to her room. Cyborg and Beast Boy just sat in the main room and wondered what had happened to everybody, no one seemed to want to talk to anyone anymore. After a discussion that went long into the night, the Titans decided to take a break.

"So how long is this gonna last?" Cyborg sat down heavily on the couch and stared at the floor "why do we need to do this?"

"It's just for the best Cyborg," said Robin who was sitting down next to Starfire and holding her hand. They had came out with their relationship a few days ago and were surprised that none of there team mates were shocked that they were dating. "About damn time" was all Raven had said from behind her book.

"Where are we gonna go?" asked Beast Boy "me and Cy don't have any other home Robin. You'll do just fine with Batman and the League but what about the rest of us?"

"We'll be fine, man" said Cyborg "we'll see a bit of the world just you and me"

"Friends!" said Starfire "this will not be a rek'ma, we will meet again"

"Indeed," said Robin "keep your communicators on you at all times in case we need each other. This is just a vacation not a break up"

And with that they went their own ways; Robin and Starfire went to Gotham and to where Robin said was his home. Cyborg and Beast Boy loaded up the T-car with all manner of what Beast Boy called "Explorer Stuff", but Cyborg drew the line at the whaling harpoon and asked him where he got it, and headed away from the tower to where ever they were going.

That left only one.

They knocked on her door to say their goodbyes but she made no sound in reply. Raven sat on her bed with her blanket wrapped round her crying. She wanted to run out and shout to them to stay but she couldn't. She was afraid of what they would say. After a few hours of thinking she was completely alone she was startled by a knock at her door and then the soft click of it opening and a rustle of fabric as someone made their way inside. Hiding beneath her blanket she shut her eyes and wished this not to be happening. Her friends would have been shocked to see her like this but she didn't care, they had left her all alone. The blanket was thrown back and Raven jumped up ready to attack-… Robin.

"Didn't think we'd leave you here yourself now, did you?" he smiled at her and Raven threw her self at him in a huge hug. Robin stood with his arms outstretched and a panicked look on his face, Raven never hugged, it was practically a trademark. "What are you doing?" Robin was in a cold sweat now.

"I'm just happy to see you, Robin" Raven broke the hug and stepped back "I'm sorry"

"About what?"

"The hug, I shouldn't have seeing as how you and Starfire are-" Raven muttered herself into silence.

"It's okay Raven," Robin laughed a little to break the mood in the room "you should try hugging people a little more often, it's good for you". Raven smiled as she asked,

"Why did you come back for me?". Robin put his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes with a grin on his face

"Because you need us a lot more than you think you do. I can set you up in Gotham on your own. You can go to school if you want to and can see me and Star' as often as you like. Just like regular folks, okay?"

"But how can you do all this, you don't have any resources outside the tower and the team accounts?" Raven frowned as she asked the question. Robin grinned even wider, "Oh you'd be surprised"

The road to Gotham was long but Starfire had let Raven ride on the back of the R-Cycle as she flew behind them laughing and smiling as the sun set on the day. Raven lowered her hood and let the wind blow through her hair and wondered if Robin was right, that she needed the Titans more than she'd like to admit. But just now she didn't care and was bound for a new city with her friends, it was as close to happy as she had ever been.

The end

Author note; yes it's been a while since I updated but I've been very busy with stuff and things. It's finally done, the ending might be kinda schmaltzy but ya gotta have schmaltz, it makes people feel good. I hope. Spot the references to Transformers if you can. I thought the bit with Slade's mask was cool with his head all burnt and stuff, I was watching Empire Strikes Back before I wrote it so I got it from there. Hope you like it now it's done. My next fic's gonna have shorter chapters and probably be updated more often. Please review, I don't get many. And thank you so much for reading you have no idea what I means to me.


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